West Ham shareholder Tripp Smith will not sell his 8 per cent Hammers shareholding to Daniel Kretinsky as he reckons the director’s option undervalues the club.
Smith bought his initial 10 per cent shareholding from the Icelandic bank for around £10.5m and also loaned the club £9.5m interest free as part of the deal according to NowNews West Ham – Six Foot Two (6foot2.co.uk).
He invested another £3m into a £30m rights issue taking his total investment to £24m.
Another rights issue last year saw his shareholding reduce from 10% to 8% as Daniel Kretinsky invested into the club. That triggered the repayment of his £9.5m loan taking his investment back to £13.5m.
Under the terms of that agreement his shares could be sold to other share holders at £50m giving him £36.5m profit of which he would need to pay 20% capital gains tax costing him £7.3m.
Smith privately believes West Ham could be worth as much as a billion pounds one day valuing his stake at £80m. That price tag would give him £66.5m profit on his investment or just over £53m after capital gains tax.