Latest BWFC Accounts - Year ended 30th June, 2020

wanderlust wrote:£3.5 million loss doesn't sound encouraging. I know they were expecting income from the (cancelled)  Rugby League World Cup but even so at this level that's a chunk of moolah.

It is a lot of money considering FV's share capital is only £2million, Lusty, but I've got a little task for you on your return to the fold. 

1. Can you work out (in words and figures) how the £28.5m, FV agreed to pay for the assets, has been arrived at? In other words who was due to get the £28.5m (see pages 10 & 11)
   
2. Who has already been paid the £8.1m shown in the cash flow statement. (see page 14)
   
3. The holding company (i.e. not the hotel or the football club) lost £500K. Any ideas were that money went? (see page 13)
   

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Ten Bobsworth wrote:

wanderlust wrote:£3.5 million loss doesn't sound encouraging. I know they were expecting income from the (cancelled)  Rugby League World Cup but even so at this level that's a chunk of moolah.

It is a lot of money considering FV's share capital is only £2million, Lusty, but I've got a little task for you on your return to the fold. 

1. Can you work out (in words and figures) how the £28.5m, FV agreed to pay for the assets, has been arrived at? In other words who was due to get the £28.5m (see pages 10 & 11)
   
2. Who has already been paid the £8.1m shown in the cash flow statement. (see page 14)
   
3. The holding company (i.e. not the hotel or the football club) lost £500K. Any ideas were that money went? (see page 13)
   

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Did you honestly expect him to reply Bob?

Weren’t we supposed to have paid the £3.5m debt owed to creditors by yesterday to prevent the further 15 point penalty, or have I got that wrong? I haven’t heard anything on it so far which surprises and worry’s me if it was.

Whitesince63 wrote:Weren’t we supposed to have paid the £3.5m debt owed to creditors by yesterday to prevent the further 15 point penalty, or have I got that wrong? I haven’t heard anything on it so far which surprises and worry’s me if it was.

Yes the deadline was yesterday but the monies could even have been settled before that date.

There is no obligation for the club to announce that things have been settled - although you would have thought they would have - maybe they are just waiting for confirmation from the Administrator that all the unsecured claimants have been settled in full before doing so?

Personally I don't think there is anything to be concerned about in regards to the settlement of this debt.

2 Years ago we lived through this nightmare, never knowing if we'd see it through.

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Sluffy wrote:



Did you honestly expect him to reply Bob?

Not at all, Sluffy. It was just a little task for Lusty or anyone else to figure out. There are quite a few clues for those with the patience and resolve to follow them but I've tired of it all tbh.

Ten Bobsworth wrote:

Sluffy wrote:



Did you honestly expect him to reply Bob?

Not at all, Sluffy. It was just a little task for Lusty or anyone else to figure out. There are quite a few clues for those with the patience and resolve to follow them but I've tired of it all tbh.

Well he certainly thought he knew it when Anderson was in charge but clearly he didn't - that's beyond any possible dispute since the Administrators went thoroughly through the books.

I also think others who also chose to judge the Anderson era on the prejudices rather than the facts (which lets be honest was more or less everyone else bar thee and me) STILL aren't much concerned about how the finances behind how the football club are the ultimate determinate of what happens on the pitch.

Good job then that we can now rely on Marc Iles to be on the look out from now on though!

Given Wanderers have operated without drama, rebuilt on and off the pitch, not missed a bill, and won back a lot of lapsed fans - I'd be amazed if FV have not sorted this to the EFL's liking...

— Marc Iles (@MarcIles) [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

I will say I'll be glad when the matter is settled. Wanderers fans (and myself) certainly won't take our eye off the financial ball again after the last few years.

— Marc Iles (@MarcIles) [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Do you mean to say, Sluffy, that you are not entirely reassured by Iles of the Beeno? Me neither. The poor lamb's never had his eye on 'the financial ball' since he first set foot in Notlob c.12 years ago.

Club Statement.[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

— Bolton Wanderers (@OfficialBWFC) [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Bolton Wanderers FC is delighted to confirm that it has now met its obligations and agreed settlement arrangements with its unsecured creditors pertaining to Football Ventures (Whites) Ltd acquiring the club from the Administrators two years ago.

From the outset, the process has been led by Chairman Sharon Brittan and it now allows the Club to focus on an exciting future ahead.

Sharon said: “After a very challenging two years we are absolutely delighted to confirm that the Club has reached agreement with its unsecured creditors.

“This ensures that we have met our obligations, satisfied the EFL requirements and are therefore free of any embargoes and penalties.

“I would like to thank our amazing colleagues who have worked tirelessly throughout this process over the past two years and also the creditors whose patience and understanding have not only been helpful but truly appreciated.

“I’d also like to place on record our gratitude to the EFL, Jason Elliott of Cowgill’s, Paul Appleton of Begbies Traynor Group and our former COO Andrew Gartside.

“As custodians of Bolton Wanderers the future now looks extremely bright and we can now continue delivering a high performance but sustainable football club led by the Board, our Manager Ian Evatt, CEO Neil Hart and our talented and hard-working colleagues.”

Fantastic news, onwards and upwards now 

Yep great news and hopefully with all that now behind us we can get on with building for the future?

And yet some say Anderson did nothing wrong.

A bill of around £10 million in unsecured creditors – which included debts to HMRC, Bolton Council, St John’s Ambulance, local bakeries and travel companies – had been run up by the previous ownership

BoltonTillIDie wrote:

MartinBWFC wrote:And yet some say Anderson did nothing wrong.

A bill of around £10 million in unsecured creditors – which included debts to HMRC, Bolton Council, St John’s Ambulance, local bakeries and travel companies – had been run up by the previous ownership

Joking apart as per the last couple of posts, you (and many others) simply don't get it.

Anderson never ran up the debt - he had nothing at all to do with it - it was the company he owned - Bolton Wanderers Football and Athletic Club Ltd - that ran up the debt.

It became insolvent - which means it could no longer cover its debts from the income it was earning.

Anderson could have been richer than Abramovitch or poorer than a church mouse but either way it doesn't mean that he had to settle the limited companies debts from his own pocket.

That's why companies are LIMITED.

It means the owners of a company (the ones who have bought shares in it) are 'limited' to the values of the shares they bought and no more than that.

It means they don't lose their homes, cars or life savings if the company goes bust.

I don't know if you or anyone else off here owned shares in Burnden Leisure from when they first went on sale - if so, if it wasn't for the fact that Burnden Leisure is a limited company too, then you (and all other current share holders) WOULD be liable PERSONALLY for this £10m worth of debt!!!

That's why companies are set up with limited liability and have been doing so for over 200 years now!

I know I'm talking to the wall trying to explain the FACTS of how companies run because people, just like you, prefer to believe the utter bollocks and hatred that they read on social media.

Even if you don't understand stuff like this - most people don't - just a quick look at something as basic as Wikipedia can easily give you a Janet and John explanation which tells you why Anderson wasn't personally responsible (from his own pocket) for the debts of a limited company that he owned!

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And to top it all off the Administrators have been through all the books and they've not found anything that Anderson did wrong either!

Holdsworth's company bought the club, but he nor his company didn't have any money to keep it going, (his money man having bailed out at the last minute).

Holdsworth company took on a £5m loan from BluMarble BUT secured the debt against BWFC (????) and had no money to pay that back either!

Anderson kept the club afloat as long as he could in order to find a buyer to sell the club on to and whether by luck or good management we ended up with Sharon rather than got liquidated (BWFAC and Burnden Leisure both being on that road to oblivion).

Anderson may not be a saint but he's certainly not the bad guy in all of this either.

This is welcome news even if it is low on detail and high on PR.

 Insofar as debts have been settled, it is unlikely that they have been repaid out of profits and the share capital of £2million was wholly swallowed up in FV's first year losses.

So where has the money come from, how much, on what terms and what is the present state of the balance sheet? FV were exceedingly slow in publishing the 2020 accounts, when will we get to see the 2021 numbers?

For the record, Bolton Wanderers has been a limited company since 1895 which, of course, means that shareholders and directors have never, since then, been personally responsible for club debts.

Neither would they ever have been liable except for particular legal obligations applicable to directors. I'm in no doubt that there will have been multiple occasions, over many years, when the club was unable to pay its debts on time but I am not aware of any director of the club ever being found personally responsible or liable.

Which begs the question, what is Sharon hoping to get from this project or is it purely for the fun(?) and vanity of owning a football club with a lot of history?

Cajunboy wrote:Which begs the question, what is Sharon hoping to get from this project or is it purely for the fun(?) and vanity of owning a football club with a lot of history?

That's what Bob and I have been asking for the last two years Cajun - it doesn't make any financial sense at all - never has from the beginning.

It's costing someone millions, so whose footing the bill, Sharon alone?

I very much doubt it, so who is, and for why?

Perhaps she worth more than we think, with all her directorships.[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

I know it seems unlikely though.

Have you looked into her other directorships and found out how successful the other businesses are?

Cajunboy wrote:Perhaps she worth more than we think, with all her directorships.[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

I know it seems unlikely though.

Have you looked into her other directorships and found out how successful the other businesses are?

Well according to Company Check they say she is a director in 23 Companies which had at the time they did their review (note - no date given) had a combined total of £2.9m in the bank, with assets totalling £54.6m but current liabilities of £90m!

Now remember this is only from records they can view - I have no doubt like Eddie had, she has business dealings in off shore accounts too.

Company Check claims (I don't know on what basis(?)) that her net worth was/is at that time £24.6m.

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Now to put that into some perspective if she's bought BWFC with 'her' money, then assuming Mike James/Prescot Business Park used their money to just buy the hotel, then it would seem in round figures that she's probably already spent north of £10m of her nest egg already - above and beyond the value of the assets she's purchased at the club.

I personally think there is other money behind her - maybe there's a loaded Mr Brittan perhaps - but just based on what is in the public domain it makes no financial sense to, in effect, buy BWFC which was and still is mired in debt, when there were other, financially sounder, clubs to buy around that time - and since - if she only wanted it as a vanity project.

It's clearly not a sound financial investment, so I'm completely flummoxed why she did go to a seemingly exceeding amount of trouble to buy us just to piss £10m away from the word go.

Of course non of this is my business and as long as she's happy to pay the bills then she's free to do what she wants.

It's just a bit of a concern though if and when she ever decides - like Eddie did - that enough is enough!

No doubt we will jump that fence if it ever happens.