Level of Birmingham City debt 'worrying'

The authoritative Swiss Ramble reviews Birmingham City’s 2020/21 accounts, when their loss narrowed from £18m to £5m, thanks to Jude Bellingham’s transfer, which led to £27m profit on player sales. Revenue fell 40% to £14m, due to COVID. Gross debt was down £5m to £123m.

The Blues have consistently lost money, only reporting a profit once in the last nine years – and that was just £1m in 2015. Since then, the club has accumulated £90m of losses – or £107m if the profit from the stadium sale in 2019 is excluded.

Excluding player sales, underlying profitability is poor, as shown by their £30m operating loss in 2021. This metric has been consistently negative, though in fairness every club in the Championship posts substantial operating losses with ten of them above £30m.

Revenue has fallen by £9.6m (41%) in the last two years from the pre-pandemic level of £23.3m to £13.7m. This is about a third of the £39m generated in 2012, the first season after relegation from the Premier League, which included a £15m parachute payment.

Following the decrease, the £13.7m revenue is firmly in the bottom half of the Championship, only around a quarter of those clubs in receipt of the largest parachute payments, but also below clubs like NFFC £18m and Bristol City £17m.

COVID drove reductions in match receipts, down to zero from £4.7m, and commercial, which more than halved from £9.3m to £4.4m. In contrast, broadcasting rose £0.5m (5%) to £9.3m, while other operating income increased £0.3m to £1.8m, including £659k COVID grant.

Although a loss is rarely good news, the £4.8m deficit was mid-table in the 2020/21 Championship with no fewer than 5 clubs posting losses above £20m, led by Bristol City £38m and Reading £36m. Two highest profits at clubs relegated from PL the previous season.

Importance of player sales

The bottom line was boosted by profit on player sales increasing from £11.5m to £26.5m, largely from the transfer of Jude Bellingham to Borussia Dortmund. That was pretty good, but still less than half the three relegated clubs.

The Blues have become increasingly reliant on player sales with £38m profit in the last two years (mainly Bellingham in 2021 and Che Adams to Southampton in 2020). However, this season’s gains will be significantly lower, as most departures were on a free transfer.

Commercial income more than halved from £9.3m to £4.4m, as COVID meant the club could not make money from non-matchday stadium use.  It is unclear whether the figures included any Trillion Trophy naming rights.  It was still the 10th highest in the Championship, but far below Stoke £12m.

After rising 5 years in a row, average attendance (for games played with fans) dropped 9% from 22,483 to 20,412 in 2019/20, but this was still in the top ten in the Championship.

Wages

The wage bill fell 5% from £33m to £32m, as playing staff cut from 99 to 89. This was down from a £39m peak in 2018, but more than twice as much as £15m five years ago. Chairman Wenqing Zhao spoke of the “necessity to be responsible with our spending”, so more high earners will leave.   Following the decrease, the £32m wage bill is 11th highest in the Championship, so they have badly under-performed.

The wages to turnover ratio increased from 145% to 230%, badly impacted by COVID revenue reductions. In fairness, the vast majority of clubs in the Championship have unsustainable ratios well above 100% (with six over 200%), but the Blues are third highest (worst).

Based on figures in the subsidiary, Birmingham City Football Club PLC, total directors’ remuneration rose by 34% from £561k to £749k, the 4th highest in the Championship, so seemingly not performance-related. Amount received by highest paid director was up 29% from £284k to £366k.

Debt

Gross debt fell £5m from restated £128m to £123m. Amount owed to parent Birmingham Sports Holdings Limited down £43m from £116m to £73m, but £20m transferred to related party Oriental Rainbow Investments Ltd. Also £14m bank loan, £7m from EFL and £8m finance leases.

This means that club debt has grown by a worrying £107m in just five years, so is now sixth highest in the Championship. Most of the debt is not an issue, as long as the owners continue to provide support, though it is interesting that some was replaced by external debt in 2020/21.

The owner debt is interest-free, though repayable on demand, but the club made a £2.3m interest payment in 2020/21, relating to leases and bank debt. This was actually the third highest interest payment in the Championship, only below Watford and Huddersfield Town.