Post by Macmoish on Mar 24, 2011 6:45:04 GMT
The Guardian/The Digger - Matt Scott
Cash questions remain after Birmingham City share issue
• £6.8m raised falls short of required short-term funds
• Mystery over £16.6m of additional capital raising
Birmingham City's parent company is £6.8m richer after a share issue announced in October was completed. But whether that will be enough to satisfy the Carling Cup winners' creditors – particularly if their 19th place in the Premier League leads to relegation– is unclear.
Three days after the share issue was announced five months ago the subsidiary football club's accounts said: "The forecasts show that the company needs funding of around £7.5m from its ultimate parent company in the short term in order for the company to continue to operate within agreed bank facilities."
Clearly the £6.8m falls short of that but it is unknown if there has been significant other income at Birmingham International Holdings, the Hong Kongstockmarket-listed parent company, to cover the difference. Although there was about £1.25m in cash sitting in that company's bank accounts last June, there were a number of short-term bills to pay so it is impossible to tell what the company's cash position is today.
Another unexplained matter is whether the hoped-for £16.6m of additional cash has materialised. The £6.8m received was from a fully underwritten placing of shares. The second, larger tranche in the capital-raising exercise was described as a "best effort" placing and there was no word if those best efforts had led to money coming into the coffers.
Perhaps Birmingham have cause to rue the fact that, around the time of their Carling Cup final appearance, tens of millions of shares were traded on the open market, often at a 25% premium to the price on Tuesday's placing. It might have helped if the traders had bought new shares instead.
Agents must keep it clean
The Association of Football Agents will hold its general congress today, when there will be a talk about the implications of the Bribery Act 2010. Although the laws have entered the statute book, it is not believed that the authorities are yet enforcing them. But that is set to change before the end of the summer transfer window, with the introduction of measures that carry custodial sentences of up to 10 years.
Mel Stein, the AFA chairman and a trained solicitor, will tell members to remain mindful of the implications of an act of parliament that outlaws a number of practices that corruption scandals have shown occasionally enter the commerce of football transfers.
Although few of the act's measures are new, it is understood the Serious Fraud Office believes it will make prosecutions easier. And with senior executives liable for the actions of their employees, the Grant Thornton partner, Geoff Mesher, had a warning for football clubs: "There is a real risk that law-enforcement agencies may seek to maximise the deterrent effect of the legislation by pursuing a high-profile, football-based prosecution."
Clubs' licence to chill
Sports clubs are paying £87.33 just to have an iPod playing pre-match music in the dressing room. Then there is the £131.56 for the television in the bar (on top of the TV licence fee). From next year, they will also have to pay a PPL licence to performers and record companies. The proposal is apparently for the licence payment to equate to 1% of defined income. The average income of a club is £40,000, meaning a charge of £400. Unfortunately income doesn't equal profit – a club's average surplus is less than £2,000 – meaning that a PPL licence will swallow up a fifth of the average surplus. For the UK's 34,500 property-owning sports clubs the total cost to grassroots sport will be £13.8m. No wonder the Sport and Recreation Alliance, which compiled those figures, has applied to government for relief.
Keys remains the man
José Mourinho was back in the country last night. The (almost) all-conquering former Chelsea manager, who recently made headlines with his declaration of intent to return to English football, was at the Grosvenor House hotel to accept an award at the annual Football Extravaganza charity event. The £450-a-head event is in aid of Nordoff Robbins, a music-therapy charity, and always draws the great and the good of the game of football. This year it drew a football person from a new category: the controversial. Richard Keys, despite the circumstances of his recent dismissal as Sky Sports' anchor presenter, was kept as the evening's host.
www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/mar/23/birmingham-city-share-issue-digger
The Guardian
Everton's planned £9m hospitality and retail site hit by delay
• Four-story development will not open until summer of 2012
• Club still intend to maximise their commercial revenue
Everton's plans to build a £9m hospitality and retail development have been delayed and the project will now not open until the summer of 2012.
Having failed in their bid to secure a new stadium, the Merseyside club sought to maximise commercial revenue by successfully applying last year for the four-story development at Goodison Park. The building was initially scheduled to be opened this autumn, but the logistical difficulties associated with that timescale mean the expected finish date has been put back to next summer.
"This has been the acknowledged target date for some time as operationally it would have been difficult to open it mid-season," Everton's spokesman, Ian Ross, told the Liverpool Echo. "All of our partners are happy with the current timetable. "This is a complex project involving several partners which when completed will deliver a prestigious multi-use building, one which will unquestionably benefit both club and supporters."
www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/mar/23/everton-retail-development-delayed
Cash questions remain after Birmingham City share issue
• £6.8m raised falls short of required short-term funds
• Mystery over £16.6m of additional capital raising
Birmingham City's parent company is £6.8m richer after a share issue announced in October was completed. But whether that will be enough to satisfy the Carling Cup winners' creditors – particularly if their 19th place in the Premier League leads to relegation– is unclear.
Three days after the share issue was announced five months ago the subsidiary football club's accounts said: "The forecasts show that the company needs funding of around £7.5m from its ultimate parent company in the short term in order for the company to continue to operate within agreed bank facilities."
Clearly the £6.8m falls short of that but it is unknown if there has been significant other income at Birmingham International Holdings, the Hong Kongstockmarket-listed parent company, to cover the difference. Although there was about £1.25m in cash sitting in that company's bank accounts last June, there were a number of short-term bills to pay so it is impossible to tell what the company's cash position is today.
Another unexplained matter is whether the hoped-for £16.6m of additional cash has materialised. The £6.8m received was from a fully underwritten placing of shares. The second, larger tranche in the capital-raising exercise was described as a "best effort" placing and there was no word if those best efforts had led to money coming into the coffers.
Perhaps Birmingham have cause to rue the fact that, around the time of their Carling Cup final appearance, tens of millions of shares were traded on the open market, often at a 25% premium to the price on Tuesday's placing. It might have helped if the traders had bought new shares instead.
Agents must keep it clean
The Association of Football Agents will hold its general congress today, when there will be a talk about the implications of the Bribery Act 2010. Although the laws have entered the statute book, it is not believed that the authorities are yet enforcing them. But that is set to change before the end of the summer transfer window, with the introduction of measures that carry custodial sentences of up to 10 years.
Mel Stein, the AFA chairman and a trained solicitor, will tell members to remain mindful of the implications of an act of parliament that outlaws a number of practices that corruption scandals have shown occasionally enter the commerce of football transfers.
Although few of the act's measures are new, it is understood the Serious Fraud Office believes it will make prosecutions easier. And with senior executives liable for the actions of their employees, the Grant Thornton partner, Geoff Mesher, had a warning for football clubs: "There is a real risk that law-enforcement agencies may seek to maximise the deterrent effect of the legislation by pursuing a high-profile, football-based prosecution."
Clubs' licence to chill
Sports clubs are paying £87.33 just to have an iPod playing pre-match music in the dressing room. Then there is the £131.56 for the television in the bar (on top of the TV licence fee). From next year, they will also have to pay a PPL licence to performers and record companies. The proposal is apparently for the licence payment to equate to 1% of defined income. The average income of a club is £40,000, meaning a charge of £400. Unfortunately income doesn't equal profit – a club's average surplus is less than £2,000 – meaning that a PPL licence will swallow up a fifth of the average surplus. For the UK's 34,500 property-owning sports clubs the total cost to grassroots sport will be £13.8m. No wonder the Sport and Recreation Alliance, which compiled those figures, has applied to government for relief.
Keys remains the man
José Mourinho was back in the country last night. The (almost) all-conquering former Chelsea manager, who recently made headlines with his declaration of intent to return to English football, was at the Grosvenor House hotel to accept an award at the annual Football Extravaganza charity event. The £450-a-head event is in aid of Nordoff Robbins, a music-therapy charity, and always draws the great and the good of the game of football. This year it drew a football person from a new category: the controversial. Richard Keys, despite the circumstances of his recent dismissal as Sky Sports' anchor presenter, was kept as the evening's host.
www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/mar/23/birmingham-city-share-issue-digger
The Guardian
Everton's planned £9m hospitality and retail site hit by delay
• Four-story development will not open until summer of 2012
• Club still intend to maximise their commercial revenue
Everton's plans to build a £9m hospitality and retail development have been delayed and the project will now not open until the summer of 2012.
Having failed in their bid to secure a new stadium, the Merseyside club sought to maximise commercial revenue by successfully applying last year for the four-story development at Goodison Park. The building was initially scheduled to be opened this autumn, but the logistical difficulties associated with that timescale mean the expected finish date has been put back to next summer.
"This has been the acknowledged target date for some time as operationally it would have been difficult to open it mid-season," Everton's spokesman, Ian Ross, told the Liverpool Echo. "All of our partners are happy with the current timetable. "This is a complex project involving several partners which when completed will deliver a prestigious multi-use building, one which will unquestionably benefit both club and supporters."
www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/mar/23/everton-retail-development-delayed