The board of the Leyton Orient Fans’ Trust (LOFT) welcomes the announcement of David Gandler as the club’s new majority stakeholder.

Several weeks ago, members of LOFT’s board accepted an invitation to meet with club chairman Nigel Travis and chief executive Mark Devlin, to discuss matters pertaining to the sale of a majority shareholding in the club. In particular, we discussed the planned restructure of Leyton Orient Football Club’s shareholding ahead of the new majority shareholder coming on board. We were, of course, unable to discuss the meeting publicly, but we can now welcome the club’s decision to consult us on these issues.

Under the restructure, LOFT and other shareholders retain their number of shares, but the percentage of shares owned are diluted, due to existing directors’ loans to the club being converted into shares. LOFT’s board subsequently agreed that, while the club needed to go through the relevant procedures with all shareholders (which has since occurred), this restructure supports the investment into the club and that all shareholdings are similarly diluted.

We were pleased to hear assurances made by the club on due diligence, and protecting the club’s identity and traditions under the new majority owner. We were also reassured of Nigel’s ongoing commitment to the club, and the continuity shown by Kent Teague, Rich Emmett and (in particular) Matt Porter remaining as directors.

As an independent supporters’ trust, LOFT will of course continue to scrutinise what the change of ownership means for the longer term – in the spirit of transparency and the ‘challenge culture’ that Nigel Travis welcomes. The club is entering a new and potentially exciting era, with its stated ambitions to move to a new stadium to allow it to grow as a football club, but at the same time O’s fans will not want to go through what happened in 2014-17.

For now, “Up the O’s” and let’s hope for as enjoyable and successful end to the season as possible.