Norwich City have announced plans to allot shares at a general meeting on February 13.

The club revealed this morning that shareholders had been notified of the meeting, saying in a statement on their website: "The general meeting has been called to allot a number of shares, as the club seeks to strengthen its financial sustainability by reducing the need for borrowings.

"Shareholders are welcome to attend the meeting, but given its anticipated short length are also encouraged to vote via proxy. 

"Further information will follow once the formal business of the meeting has concluded."

To allot shares means to exercise the club's ability to create more shares in the club, the purchase of which would reduce the size of other shareholders' stakes without a direct transaction between shareholding parties.

Letters sent to shareholders have revealed that there would be 194,512 new shares allotted, which would take the number available from 616,913 to 811,425. This means that the additional shares would be 23.97pc of the increased number of ordinary shares.

The purchase of Michael Foulger's shares by American businessman Mark Attanasio was confirmed in September, with the Milwaukee Brewers owner acquiring a minority stake in the club to become its second-largest shareholder.

He purchased nearly 16pc of shares from Foulger, but has also topped that up by acquiring smaller shareholdings from others.

Joint majority shareholders Delia Smith and Michael Wynn Jones remain in control of 53pc of the club, after Attanasio joined the City board of directors along with the completion of his purchase of shares.

The 65-year-old has a mixture of ordinary shares and C-preference shares, which he can convert into ordinary shares or returns on a £10million investment either in seven years or upon certain trigger events.

Smith and Wynn Jones became joint majority shareholders in 1997 and saw their stake as high as 63pc in 1998, before reducing to their current percentage in 2015.