BLACKBURN Rovers owners Venky’s are to turn the club from a public limited company to a private one.

It has called a special general meeting of shareholders to discuss the change at Ewood Park at 11am on Wednesday, October 22.

Financial experts say the move is ‘sensible’ as Rovers’ owners do not trade in shares or use the stock market to raise capital.

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Club financial director Mike Cheston said the move would streamline its operations and had already been approved by the Football Association.

The change gives the club more flexibility over when it publishes its accounts and what is included, reducing administrative costs by several thousand pounds.

When Venky’s bought more than 99 per cent of the Blackburn Rovers Football and Athletic plc it was already a stock exchange listed public limited company.

They did not exercise their right to buy out the tiny number of private shareholders, including Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council, and in April last year one of those stakeholders, Stephen Halstead, gave part of his holding to the Rovers Trust.

Cheston said small shareholders status would be unaffected.

Most clubs in the Championship and lower divisions are private limited companies, as are Premier League neighbours Burnley.

Earlier this year Bolton Wanderers made the same change from plc status.

Cheston said in club statement: “The board is aware that some shareholders might be concerned about the effect of the proposed re-registration of the company as a private limited company and welcomes the opportunity to clarify why the change is being proposed and that existing shareholders will not lose their shares as a result.

“The change is being proposed because the company does not do any of the things that only a PLC can do (such as having shares traded on the Stock Exchange) and so the additional restrictions on PLCs are imposed on the company for no benefit.

“Becoming a private company will allow the company to operate more flexibly and efficiently taking advantage of the rules which apply to all private companies including most other football clubs with which the company is in competition.

“The change to being a private company does not cancel or reduce existing shareholdings. The re-registration does not create any rights for the majority shareholder to acquire shares from the other shareholders.

“The new private company constitution being put to the shareholders for approval maintains the same core objectives as the current constitution; the change is being proposed to make the company easier to operate rather than to make a change in its nature.

“Any change in a club’s constitution is subject to prior FA approval which has been granted in this case.”

Rovers fan and borough leisure boss Damian Talbot said: “If this reduces costs and streamlines the administration to improve the team's chances of getting back into the Premier League, I have no problems with an essentially technical change.”

Dan Grabko, finance officer of the Rovers Trust supporters group, said; “This sort of change doesn’t really have any effect on the liabilities or the creditors – that all remains intact – and both types of company are limited by shares.

“So, this could be being done to postpone Financial Fair Play (FFP) sanctions due to more lax reporting regulations between the two forms of company registration.

“However, the enormous losses the club continues to make and the absence of any long-term vision are more worrying. Plus, how the club intends to deal with FFP.

“We will be following the general meeting with interest on October 22.”

Rovers have to submit their accounts for the 2013-14 season to the Football League by December 1.

If they show a loss of more than £8m – their accounts for the 2012-13 season showed a £36.5m loss – then the club, under the present FFP rules, would be hit with a transfer embargo that would come into force on January 1.

It is understood that further talks between Championship clubs and the Football League, regarding FFP, are scheduled to take place.

Sunnyhurst councillor and Rovers fan Dave Smith, who will be attending the meeting on October 22, said: “Hopefully this is just a measure to streamline the administration and make it easier to manage the club and there are no ulterior motives.”

Carlton Cooper, partner at Cassons who handle Burnley’s accounts, said: “Generally, you would expect a football league club to be a private limited company.

“By changing from a public limited company to a private limited company there will be savings on red tape and other regulatory demands.”