Bill Foley: Hibernian shareholders vote through American’s £6m investment in club

Hibernian shareholders have voted in favour of Billy Foley’s £6m investment at the club’s annual general meeting.

The American billionaire, who owns a controlling interest in Premier League Bournemouth, takes up a 25% stake.

A vote in excess of 75% of current shareholders was required to approve the deal and was reached at a packed meeting inside Easter Road on Tuesday.

The Gordon family remain majority shareholders with a stake of just above 60%, reduced from 67%.

They have written off around £5m in loans to allow the Foley deal to proceed. The 79-year-old’s Black Knight consortium also hold a minority interest in French side Lorient and a licence for a new team in Auckland, New Zealand to compete in Australia’s A League. Foley was not at Tuesday’s AGM.

“It’s game changing for Hibs and I think it’s quite ground breaking for Scottish football for the nature of a deal of this type,” Hibernian chief executive Ben Kensell said afterwards.

“Being part of a multi-club network gives us loads of opportunities around best practise sharing, player trading within the network. It obviously gives us equity and cash we can use along with the investment from the Gordon family.

“There is no reason to doubt the integrity of this partnership, this deal, certainly not this ownership.”

Kit Gordon, the widow of Ron Gordon who purchased the club from Sir Tom Farmer in 2019, said her family is “totally committed” to Hibs.

“This was something that Ron would have gone after,” she explained. “We still have control and that is the most important thing. As you know for Ron, control was very important and we haven’t lost that. We still have control.”

The Scottish FA had given its approval for the investment by Foley, who would be allowed to own a maximum shareholding of 29.9%. His investment will be split between improving the infrastructure at Hibs and the playing squad.

Shareholders were told the £6m would allow improvement at the club’s training base and the creation of a home for the women’s team with a full-time base and stadium for matches.

On the park, the Easter Road men’s team are seventh in the Scottish Premiership and have seven games left to secure a top-six finish, with Dundee currently two points ahead.

Nick Montgomery’s side visit city rivals Hearts in the league on Wednesday and will host Rangers in next month’s Scottish Cup quarter-final.

In the SWPL, Hibs are fifth and they will meet Rangers in the quarter-finals of the Women’s Scottish Cup.