Forty-one days ago, on 4 September, West Ham issued a statement announcing, “The club will not be making any further comment until all transactions are complete”.
Claret and Hugh understand the share transactions are going through normal legal and regulatory processes and the share sale will still happen as planned.
The buyers of the shares must pay stamp duty of 0.5% of the total purchase price (rounded up to the nearest £5) to HMRC. The buyers must pay this and submit the document to HMRC within 30 days of the transfer date, which can be four weeks after the share transaction process, after monies have been exchanged.
Some of the shares will be held by foreign entities, which adds further complications in respect of the time to process share transfers. Under UK company law, the company has up to two months from lodging the transfer to issue a new share certificate.
The company’s Persons with Significant Control (PSC) register must be updated within 14 days if the transfer changes significant control. Public registry updates on share percentages via Companies House typically happen during the next confirmation statement filing, which is not due until early next year.
What is now obvious is that the full share transaction process has not completed yet, and there won’t be a new statement until it is.
A source close to the club told Claret and Hugh, “Nothing to update on the share issue; still all going through, just taking some time”