Ato Ahwoi, Atta Mills relinquish shares in Hearts

Accra, Nov 27, GNA - Ato Ahwoi, Board Chairman and Professor John Evans Atta Mills, a former Director of Accra Hearts of Oak, who are technically the owners of the club as they are the only living shareholders, have decided to relinquish their shares to pave way for a new floatation.

Mr Ahwoi, who vacated his seat as the board chairman after Saturday's Congress for a seat on the Council of Patrons, said the decision to renounce their shares was to enable the club to raise the much needed funds to ensure the smooth running of the club.

Disclosing this at the club's much awaited third congress which came off successfully after 11 years of litigation, Mr Ahwoi tasked all members of the Phobian family to invest heavily in the club by purchasing the club's shares to guarantee them a much bigger say in the running of the club.

Hearts of Oak Sporting Limited was issued with a certificate to commence business on February 3 1994, with 100,000,000 shares of no value to five persons, namely Ato Ahwoi, Dr. John Evans Atta Mills, Dr Alfred Amoaku Mensah (deceased), William Frank Sawyer (deceased) and Mr Bright Akwetey.

He said since the law court had decided that Mr Bright Akwetey was not a legal shareholder, it leaves the shares of the club in the hands of the two people who are still alive.

"It is time for all who call themselves true Phobians to rise up and take their rightful place in the administration of the club, by "putting their month where their money is" once and for all, instead of staying back and just criticise."

"The time when Hearts was run from the pocket of just a few people who go to the extent of putting their personal property down as collateral for loans should be no more.

"If we put 10 million shares up for sale at a value of 5000 cedis per share, Hearts will be able to raise about 50 billion cedis enough to clear the mounting debt of the team and build new facilities for the club," he said.

Mr Ahwoi promised supporters that anything concerning the sale of shares would be transparent in line with the constitution of the club and the companies' code.

He said the board had so far received proposals from Strategic African Securities and Data Bank on ways to float the shares. Mr Ahwoi said the outgoing board would be leaving the decision in the hands of the incoming board to decide which of the two companies was the better for the team.

When the decision was thrown to the delegates for voting the house unanimously agreed with the decision to go ahead with the floatation of shares.