Jeremy Peace has welcomed the proposed investigation into a loan made from West Bromwich Albion to his company as the club’s minority shareholders prepare to meet with CEO Xu Ke next week. Peace, Albion’s former chairman, has always denied any wrongdoing and now has spoken publicly in the form of a statement issued to the Times, in which he outlined his hopes that an investigation would put an end to ‘baseless comments’ from a group of said minority shareholders. The club transferred £3.7m to Peace’s company West Bromwich Albion Holdings, which held the majority stake in the club, in 2014. Peace always has strenuously denied suggestions that he borrowed the money in order to buy more shares in the club, and maintained that the reasoning behind the loan was that it was commercially attractive to the club.
Jeremy Peace said: “Certain independent shareholders have been grumbling for years since I sold shares in 2016, when they know that they have no basis for complaint. I want to make it clear that money was not borrowed from the football club to buy shares. There was nothing untoward or improper in respect of any of my dealings with West Bromwich Albion. I welcome an investigation to put an end, once and for all, to the baseless comments of a small group of shareholders. The loan made to West Bromwich Albion Holdings by the football club was on arm’s length and commercially attractive terms at a time when cash deposits elsewhere were (and still are) earning a much lower rate of interest.”
Since taking over Peace’s majority stake at West Bromwich Albion in 2016, Lai has, by and large, left the club to run itself on a day-to-day basis without adding any significant funding.
