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Ken Anderson claims it is “unlikely” Wanderers will have to pay back the £15million loan left in by previous Wanderers owner Eddie Davies after the takeover in March.
Answering questions about the club’s financial state in a Q&A session on Tuesday night, the chairman spoke frankly about his plans for the future as he vies to become sole owner.
Addressing the levels of debt at the club, reported to be £30m, Anderson insists the true amount to be only half after coming to an arrangement with the Isle of Man based life-long fan.
“It has been widely said to be £30m but that is not the case,” he said. “That includes Eddie Davies’s loan, which is not repayable at this moment. He has extended it and the circumstances are that it is unlikely we will have to repay it.
“Originally it was £186m of which he wrote off £171m, the other £15m was left because it was the most tax-efficient way for Ed to do that transaction.”
Davies bankrolled Wanderers for more than a decade after becoming majority shareholder in 2003, enabling the club to reach unimaginable Premier League heights under Sam Allardyce and bring in some world class players.
His legacy was affected, however, by the turmoil which occurred in the last six months of his spell as owner, when some of the financial decisions made by late chairman Phil Gartside and his board were brought into significant question.
Anderson has kept a close dialogue with Davies – who is still a devoted follower of the Whites – and is now hoping to restore the club to a more even keel.
“In the past Ed put in a lot of money and probably hasn’t been given the gratitude for what he did do, even though I know towards the end that things were bad,” he said.
“We have got to the stage where come the summer we have worked out how this club can be sustainable.
“The biggest problem, and it is no secret, is high cost players.
“Twenty players went last summer and by the end of this season we can really get this club back to some degree of sustainability.
“After that we cut our cloth accordingly and take on expenses that we can afford to make sure this club continues to be here.
“In the past we had Ed, and from what I can see at past accounts was putting in an average of between £15-18million a year into the club.
“The downside of that, like Chelsea or Manchester City, is that if that benefactor withdraws you end up where we were last March.
“I don’t think we will go back to that.”
Anderson remains in talks with Dean Holdsworth and BluMarble Capital about increasing his stake in the club by 40 per cent but says if his attempt is successful, future funding will be a “mixture of debt and equity.”
Disagreements still continue between between the two men who stopped Wanderers from slipping into administration earlier this year – with Anderson highlighting that Holdsworth had rejected his offer to fund the club going forward on a “pro-rata basis.”
Holdsworth’s counter argument centres on the fact his Sports Shield company took out the £5m finance from BluMarble, and that Anderson offer of pro-rata funding did not take into consideration the loaned funds already agreed under the contract signed in March.
Anderson has refrained from commenting in detail on the negotiations but outlined his own position on Tuesday night to supporters.
“I did not put money into Sports Shield and that transaction (with BluMarble) was in place before I got involved,” he explained.
“On myself, there has been no borrowed money. It has been my own personal money.
“When the club has required money I have put it in, I have gone on record with that before and will continue to do so.
“Future funding will be more equity and hopefully some debt which will replace the BluMarble. It will need to be replaced because it was never a good deal in the first place.
“That will take us through to the end of the season.”
Wanderers are losing £800,000 a month and yearly losses of £18m forecast when Anderson walked through the doors of the Macron have been improved marginally.
The chairman claims to have saved around £500,000 in renegotiating existing contracts with agents and legal representatives since his arrival.
Player wages continue to make up the vast majority of the Whites’ outgoings and even if the club is promoted this season, Anderson believes a more sensible financial approach will be needed in the second tier.
“The losses of £800,000 a month are correct,” he said. “We are looking to cut back on that figure each day but, realistically, it isn’t going to change drastically until this summer.
“We have looked at where we could be next summer. If we get promoted it brings another £6-7m into our budget in income and I think we’ll then be in a situation where without selling players we’d be in a position to make a loss of circa £3m.
“If the club went into administration the biggest cost is salaries. We’ve got one of the highest budgets in this league and it wouldn’t be my choice but it’s something I have inherited.
“Salaries are not sustainable and we don’t need to pay them, whether we are in League One or the Championship next year.”
Anderson has instructed auditors Deloitte to file the overdue accounts for 2015, which is the first step towards ridding the club of the transfer embargo.
“The embargo is still in place and it will be until we have filed the accounts and had a further meeting with the Football League,” he said.
“I have regular contact with the people there but not necessarily about club business. There hasn’t been the pressure on me that everyone seems to think there is.”
The chairman addressed concerns from a minority shareholder – who like many had their investment diluted considerably back in 2003 when Davies bought in – about the lack of an Annual General Meeting in the last couple of years.
Former chairman Gartside pledged that the club would still honour that commitment despite switching to a private limited company a few years ago.
“It is something that has been on my mind and giving it consideration,” Anderson said. “When the current situation is resolved, I think we will call a meeting.”
The make-up of the board has also been discussed, with the chairman pledging ‘experienced football people’ will get involved once the dust settles on his takeover.
“We expect to bring in other directors but at the moment – let’s be honest – would you want to, knowing the repercussions of the role?” he added.
Source
Answering questions about the club’s financial state in a Q&A session on Tuesday night, the chairman spoke frankly about his plans for the future as he vies to become sole owner.
Addressing the levels of debt at the club, reported to be £30m, Anderson insists the true amount to be only half after coming to an arrangement with the Isle of Man based life-long fan.
“It has been widely said to be £30m but that is not the case,” he said. “That includes Eddie Davies’s loan, which is not repayable at this moment. He has extended it and the circumstances are that it is unlikely we will have to repay it.
“Originally it was £186m of which he wrote off £171m, the other £15m was left because it was the most tax-efficient way for Ed to do that transaction.”
Davies bankrolled Wanderers for more than a decade after becoming majority shareholder in 2003, enabling the club to reach unimaginable Premier League heights under Sam Allardyce and bring in some world class players.
His legacy was affected, however, by the turmoil which occurred in the last six months of his spell as owner, when some of the financial decisions made by late chairman Phil Gartside and his board were brought into significant question.
Anderson has kept a close dialogue with Davies – who is still a devoted follower of the Whites – and is now hoping to restore the club to a more even keel.
“In the past Ed put in a lot of money and probably hasn’t been given the gratitude for what he did do, even though I know towards the end that things were bad,” he said.
“We have got to the stage where come the summer we have worked out how this club can be sustainable.
“The biggest problem, and it is no secret, is high cost players.
“Twenty players went last summer and by the end of this season we can really get this club back to some degree of sustainability.
“After that we cut our cloth accordingly and take on expenses that we can afford to make sure this club continues to be here.
“In the past we had Ed, and from what I can see at past accounts was putting in an average of between £15-18million a year into the club.
“The downside of that, like Chelsea or Manchester City, is that if that benefactor withdraws you end up where we were last March.
“I don’t think we will go back to that.”
Anderson remains in talks with Dean Holdsworth and BluMarble Capital about increasing his stake in the club by 40 per cent but says if his attempt is successful, future funding will be a “mixture of debt and equity.”
Disagreements still continue between between the two men who stopped Wanderers from slipping into administration earlier this year – with Anderson highlighting that Holdsworth had rejected his offer to fund the club going forward on a “pro-rata basis.”
Holdsworth’s counter argument centres on the fact his Sports Shield company took out the £5m finance from BluMarble, and that Anderson offer of pro-rata funding did not take into consideration the loaned funds already agreed under the contract signed in March.
Anderson has refrained from commenting in detail on the negotiations but outlined his own position on Tuesday night to supporters.
“I did not put money into Sports Shield and that transaction (with BluMarble) was in place before I got involved,” he explained.
“On myself, there has been no borrowed money. It has been my own personal money.
“When the club has required money I have put it in, I have gone on record with that before and will continue to do so.
“Future funding will be more equity and hopefully some debt which will replace the BluMarble. It will need to be replaced because it was never a good deal in the first place.
“That will take us through to the end of the season.”
Wanderers are losing £800,000 a month and yearly losses of £18m forecast when Anderson walked through the doors of the Macron have been improved marginally.
The chairman claims to have saved around £500,000 in renegotiating existing contracts with agents and legal representatives since his arrival.
Player wages continue to make up the vast majority of the Whites’ outgoings and even if the club is promoted this season, Anderson believes a more sensible financial approach will be needed in the second tier.
“The losses of £800,000 a month are correct,” he said. “We are looking to cut back on that figure each day but, realistically, it isn’t going to change drastically until this summer.
“We have looked at where we could be next summer. If we get promoted it brings another £6-7m into our budget in income and I think we’ll then be in a situation where without selling players we’d be in a position to make a loss of circa £3m.
“If the club went into administration the biggest cost is salaries. We’ve got one of the highest budgets in this league and it wouldn’t be my choice but it’s something I have inherited.
“Salaries are not sustainable and we don’t need to pay them, whether we are in League One or the Championship next year.”
Anderson has instructed auditors Deloitte to file the overdue accounts for 2015, which is the first step towards ridding the club of the transfer embargo.
“The embargo is still in place and it will be until we have filed the accounts and had a further meeting with the Football League,” he said.
“I have regular contact with the people there but not necessarily about club business. There hasn’t been the pressure on me that everyone seems to think there is.”
The chairman addressed concerns from a minority shareholder – who like many had their investment diluted considerably back in 2003 when Davies bought in – about the lack of an Annual General Meeting in the last couple of years.
Former chairman Gartside pledged that the club would still honour that commitment despite switching to a private limited company a few years ago.
“It is something that has been on my mind and giving it consideration,” Anderson said. “When the current situation is resolved, I think we will call a meeting.”
The make-up of the board has also been discussed, with the chairman pledging ‘experienced football people’ will get involved once the dust settles on his takeover.
“We expect to bring in other directors but at the moment – let’s be honest – would you want to, knowing the repercussions of the role?” he added.
Source
) were probably gutted they'd nothing to vent their bitter unpleasant spleens at.
