Rochdale, who visit Barrow on Monday, appear to be struggling both on and off the field.
A 4-3 defeat at Doncaster on Thursday left Dale in the second relegation place while the club has revealed it continues to operate “in very difficult financial circumstances.”
A Christmas message from the chairman Simon Gauge said that without one-off events such as player sales, cup runs, or other windfalls, the club is likely to make a loss in the region of £1.2m in the financial year to June 2023.
To raise some of the required capital to face these challenges, shareholders authorised in November 2022 to permit the Board of Directors to issue up to another 450,000 shares in the club to be sold at not less than £2.35 a share.
This increased the club’s total shares to 1,350,000, with 899,899 allocated at the time of the share issue. If the full allocation is sold, this would raise £1.06m. This followed a previous share issue in October 2021, that raised around £0.8m.
The club have added: “Supporters have purchased around 5% of the new shares at the present time, and the club of course welcomes these purchases. However, the overall uptake has been low.
“The Board of Directors is now looking outside of the existing shareholder and fanbase for an investor/s to acquire the remaining unsold shares.
“As such, the club invites any parties (including existing shareholders, supporters, etc) to express their interest at the earliest opportunity.”
Mr Gauge added: “It has become essential that we look for outside investment. Anybody putting in this level of investment may want to take a controlling stake in the club at some stage in the future and the board are open to exploring how to facilitate this, providing the investor guarantees the future sustainability of the club.
“Significant due diligence will be undertaken as part of this process, both internally, and via all relevant EFL processes.”
Barrow go into Monday’s game without a win in five, despite some decent performances.
