Buried deep into the 2024 Accounts released from Ibrox today is a fresh loan of £10m which must be repaid by 30 June 2025!
A headline figure of losses of £17.2m has allowed the media messengers to spin the Accounts as better than expected but as ever there is more to them than meets the eye.
Despite his claims otherwise Phil Clement has been heavily backed in the transfer market with around £16m in transfer fees committed on Mohamed Diomande, Oscar Cortes, Nadim Banraji, Jefte, Hamza Igamane and Robin Propper with the fee for Connor Barron still to be decided by the SFA.
Those fees didn’t come from the player trading model with US based Director Julian Wolhardt stumping up £10m to fund the Clement Revolution! with that money due to be repaid with interest on 30 June 2025.
RIFC accounts to year end June 30, 2024:
Revenue: £88.3m
Costs: £96.2m
Net Loss: £17.2m£9m debt to equity since year end. Further £4m to be drawn down. Plan to raise £8.6m of equity.
JG describes it as a ‘challenging period’ for the club due to changes off and off the pitch.
— Chris Jack (@Chris_Jack89) October 29, 2024
Plan to raise £8.6m of equity TRANSLATES to £8.6m more of loans required to see the season out.
Clement will need to come up with some miracles on the pitch to provide the club with their first ever profit otherwise fresh ways will have to be found to honour the short term loan.
On page 30 out of 33 in the Accounts the club announced:
Director loans John Bennett, Perron Investments LLC and Julian Juul Wolhardt Loans of £5.23 million from Mr J Bennett and £0.94 million from Mr J Wolhardt made under a secured debt facility were outstanding at 30 June 2024.
Repayments of loans are paid in quarterly instalments to the repayment date of 31 July 2028. The facility allows for accelerated repayments based on certain events. Interest is currently charged at 4% on an accruals basis (2023: 6%).
Loans of £6.16 million made by Mr J Bennett under a separate facility on a drawdown basis are currently outstanding. Interest is currently charged at 4% on an accruals basis.
Loans of £10.0 million made by Mr J Wolhardt and Perron Investments LLC were outstanding at 30 June 2024. The repayment date of this facility is 30 June 2025. Interest is currently charged at 4% on an accruals basis.
Interest on investor loans, either paid, accrued, or adjusted to a fair market value, totalled £1.319 million.
Clement has been promised a transfer war-chest for the January Transfer Window by Caretaker Chairman John Gilligan.
By the weekend this will be put out of mind by the media and they’ll be running stories about who Phil can bring in when he gets a January mega bucks warchest
Looks like the fresh loan of £10M and subsequent debt to equity confetti conversion has
helped avoid a Going Concern qualification, or prescribed Directors’ guarantees.
But, accumulated RIFC losses [“Retained Earnings”] has now reached an eye-watering
£107M !
Is that yet another ibrox World Record? 🙂
Editor I have no knowledge of Accounts/ Stocks/ Shares etc;…Could you, or one of your readers, therefore clarify the total amount of the Loans they are involved in.
My reading of your article suggests its Mega…but I may have not understood it properly.
And does the £8 million “equity” requirement…come from a Share issue,?
Presumably the £10 million sovs plus interest loan to be paid before June 2025 ,will come out of the season ticket money ? So right before a ball is kicked in anger for next season a £10 mill plus hole will be missing for player trading and playing matters from their bank account ? They really could not hammer a nail into a dumpling as far as their business practices are concerned ….
…and the headlines are all about mismanagement at ICT causing their demise.
Sports media in this country is akin to Russia.
Look at the reaction in the English press when Utd asked City if 2 players could share their flight…and up here uv got 10’s if not 100’s of millions being pissed up against a wall to preserve an “institution”.
One thing about watching paint drying is that you know there is something happening!