Soccer Football - Europa League - Fans gather in Glasgow for the Europa League Final - Eintracht Frankfurt v Rangers - Glasgow, Scotland, Britain - May 18, 2022 Rangers fans outside the Ibrox Stadium during the Europa League final Action Images via Reuters/Lee Smith
The Sun has come up with an incredible explaination the Companies House announcement that They Rangers have taken on a finance deal with Macquarie Bank.
No figures are known but the 31 page document is effectively an advance on transfer payments due to be paid with Macquarie providing an advance in return for getting the other club to pay directly to themselves.
Clue- Macquarie Bank are not a charity, they charge a fee for their service which will vary depending on the credit rating of the club involved.
Social media was rife with speculation around tea-time about the deal but in reaction that to that The Sun led with the sub-headline:
Rangers secure loan against future transfer fees – here’s what it REALLY means for Ibrox club’s finances
Contrary to rumours elsewhere, it’s NOT believed to be a major cause for concern
The loan from Macquarie screams out cash flow problems, ie the club was short of funds to meet monthly commitments with their main bank not prepared to offer an overdraft.
That is where organisations like Maquarie come in, effectively the corporate equivalent of Wonga, a firm that provided ‘pay day loans’ to individuals.
The article continued:
RANGERS have secured a loan against future transfer fees, it has emerged.
The Ibrox club has entered into an agreement with the Macquarie Group, in a similar arrangement to loans the bank provided to Burnley, Watford and West Brom in recent years.
The exact amount of money involved is undisclosed but the process of taking out loans on future income is a common trend in football.
Premier League clubs such as Aston Villa, Crystal Palace and Southampton have received funds from Macquarie in the last nine years.
Southampton secured a loan in 2016 against future TV rights but the other clubs in question took their loans out against future transfer payments.
Receivables finance, also known as transfer factoring, is a growing practice within the football industry, often used by clubs with short-term cash flow problems.
According to documents lodged to Companies House, two parties, ‘FCT’ and ‘PC’, owe Rangers money.
It is likely FCT and PC refer to FC Twente and Parma Calcio, two clubs that Rangers have done business with in recent years.
Gers sold Antonio Colak to Serie A side Parma for around £2.5m in 2023 and Eredivisie outfit Twente purchased Sam Lammers for a similar amount last summer.
Transfer fees are usually paid in instalments than in full however, and it’s understood Rangers are still waiting for these instalments to be paid.
Mention of the Lammers fee blows the article apart.
In their 2024 Report, in the section for events post year end (30 June) the club announced a total of £810,000 had been received for Lammers, Connor Goldson, Todd Cantwell, Scott Wright and Robbie McCrorie.
In contrast the Glasgow Times reported:
This move appears to contrast with previous remarks made by former chairman John Bennett, who in 2021 suggested that the Scottish Premiership club would not engage with banks such as Macquarie due to the interest rates involved.
At the time, he stated: “We have had numerous approaches, including in November.
“It is so interesting, they come to you and it could be equity, it could be family offices, it could be banks such as MacQuarie Bank and they are active in the football space. They can’t touch our terms.
“What I have been saying and a number of us have been saying is ‘Ok, those are interesting approaches’. I can tell you that one of them was at 13 per cent per annum.
“We’re not paying that. We are no longer paying nine, we are no longer paying eight, six is the new benchmark.
“If those providers can come in and beat that at two levels – a lower coupon, because six is the new benchmark, and we have driven the cost of funding down to six.
“I think that is one of the lowest numbers in the whole of football in Britain for loans. But also on security. I can assure you they want a whole lot more security and a higher coupon.”
Bennett also highlighted that Rangers had successfully lowered their cost of borrowing to one of the most competitive rates in British football, while also resisting demands for increased security on such loans.
FCT and PC are open to interpretation but over the last month the club unexpectedly had to pay off Phil Clement and four members of his coaching staff and lost out on three Scottish Cup ties due to losing at home to Queens Park.
The cash flow problems are bound to come to light if due diligence is genuinely going on for any takeover with the only confirmed information coming from Dave King.
What is absolutely beyond doubt is that since the start of December current shareholders have had loans of £18m converted into shares which suggests that losses will be far greater than the £17.2m reported to 30 June 2024.
Examining the accounts will reveal that Jack Butland, James Tavernier, Cyriel Dessers, Danilo and Nicky Raskin are under contract beyond the end of this season with Rabbi Matondo, Ben Davies, Kieran Dowell and Jose Cifuentes returning to Ibrox from being out on loan.
A £4m agreement is in place for the summer to sign Oscar Cortes from Lens on a permanent basis.
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“used by clubs with short-term cash flow problems.” … and others with long-term cash flow problems?
What happened to them using Close Brothers for short term loans ..the mob that sponsor races at the Cheltenham Festival ? The tribute act have secured a loan against future player repayments and also issued another share issue recently also …how many lights inside Ibroxland stadium need to be burned for them to have to desperately seek money from the lenders of last resort ? The alleged takeover tycoons are going to have a field day when forensically examining theRangers ‘ ledgers … especially when talks are at ‘ an advanced stage ?’
Terrific article Editor…Another exposure of the way Sevco are having to operate…which can only lead to more grief…we hope…Keep shining lights into dark corners.
Rangers will be going Tonto with news opps,sorry sevco there are no Rangers anymore.
On a more serious note how the F**K are other clubs in the league not taking this matter to UEFA to deal with a kliub running insolvent,but with an advantage in the league of claiming a champions league place doing another team such as Aberdeen Hibs or Dundee United out of the chance to earn that cash.
They obviously have players and team there they can’t afford,anybody would think that’s a sporting advantage.
Macquarie Bank is known as the great white shark – and not because you get the odd one in Macquarie Lake in Oz. It has a reputation for hard-nosed dealing and ruthlessness and has its fingers in a lot of pies that subsequently go rotten (e.g. Thames Water and other privatised former state entities), but which still earn them shedloads, usually because they pile them high with debt to do so. If you look at the surge in Thames Water’s debt pile while they were involved, you will see what I mean (all of which is legal, though). Thames Water, one of the biggest water utilities in the UK, is now teetering on the edge of insolvency and will possibly require government intervention/renationalisation to save it.
This isn’t what is happening here. However, it does support Joe’s point that it is not a charity. While The Sun lists a few other clubs that have gone down this route to try to normalise it and give it some credibility, they are mostly ones that were in a promising Champions’ League race at the time or close to promotion to the EPL – with all the wonga that getting there would bring them. The tens of millions they would get for doing this would far outweigh any costs/losses from taking on some “factoring” to try to see them over the line, making it worth the punt. Not sure that’s the case here. Seems to be more about keeping the lights on.
Joe is also right to describe it as a corporate payday loan. Companies only use this kind of service when they are struggling financially themselves, or they have a very large number of small creditors that it is both very expensive and very difficult to get repayment from using inhouse people/resources. I doubt that being owed money in contractually binding instalments by two or three other football clubs falls into the latter category. Either way though, Macquarie (or anyone else that offers this service, to be fair) will be taking a big chunk of the sums owed for providing upfront funds. It will also mean that money that was due this summer, next summer and so on is no longer owed to Sevco. This clearly affects your cashflow and income for the next 1-2 seasons (maybe even longer) and obviously your transfer budgets in future transfer windows.
Debtors, not creditors – sorry.
Surely though this would be on the provision that Sevco had saleable assets that would bring in transfer fees high enough to pay said loan and it’s likely interest. If like in January there is no interest in the players, there will still be interest in this new investment model that is being championed. I’m just glad Pedro didn’t lend it to his business partners to prop up the defunct old firm inc
With factoring, what you are selling is money/debts that you are already contractually owed. You accept that you will not get all that money back (the bank you are dealing with takes its cut obviously), but you do get a guaranteed sum and you get it upfront, now, rather than having to wait for it when it’s actually due, or having to go to the expense of collecting it yourself. That can be quite costly when you have a large number of smaller debts to collect from people, some of whom will hold out or just not pay you, knowing that what the owe is not worth pursuing through the courts. So you’re not exposed to default risk either. That passes to the bank providing the factoring service.
Macquarie, the corporate equivalent of WONGA ,
Brilliant Joe, still laughing.
According to the DR they have taken out a loan with Industry Leaders ha ha.
The Daily Record are notorious pathological liars !
Is it not also the case that clubs can face a points deduction for not paying employees on time, as evidenced by the 6 points deducted from Edinburgh City in January ‘24, – not that it would make any difference to this year’s title “race”?
Hmmm…
Yet another Share Issue,
swiftly followed by the disclosure of these securitised revenues with a bank,
…but according to the SMSM, the 49-ers’ linked person [?] is carrying out due diligence
right now at RIFC with a view to an alleged ‘takeover’.
Seems a bit ‘inconsistent’ ?
The first 2 points have been publicly confirmed via the Companies House website.
The ‘takeover’ point is only SMSM copy/paste nonsense so far.
However, it does feel that something significant is brewing at ibrox,
…and it doesn’t smell good! 🙂
All these hacks that buried their heads in the sand for years and years crying that they weren’t financial experts
Are suddenly now all financial masterminds
The issue won’t be with the funding, the issue will be that this clumpany have defaulted on a financial agreement.. ta ta !!!
HH