Shareholder loans are money loaned to a club by their shareholders. They amount to a form of funding, a means for owners to inject cash into the football project without seeking equity in return. Typically these are long-term arrangements, often free of interest payments. Following the recent legal case involving Manchester City and the Premier League, they are coming under more scrutiny in terms of APT rules.
And clubs are certainly fond of them. Fourteen of the 20
Premier League teams in the 2022-23 season had shareholder loans recorded in
their most recent set of accounts and City’s legal team were only too happy to
highlight the extent of their use during this case. It was cited that
£1.5billion ($1.96bn) out of £4bn total borrowings across the division — 37 per
cent — were through shareholder loans.
“The main motivation (behind shareholder loans) is that it’s
an easier mechanism for an owner getting their money back,” says Chris
Weatherspoon, an accountant and financial analyst at the football website Game
State. “If they put in equity, that’s them effectively giving up any right to a
return, short of paying out dividends, which hardly any club does or even can
do, as most are in a position of accumulated deficits, or making their money
back when they sell up.
“It’s also more tax efficient. Interest costs on debt — if
owners charge them — are tax-deductible for clubs, so reduce the club’s tax
burden; dividend payments aren’t.
Three clubs lead the way by some distance in terms of
shareholder loans: Everton, Brighton & Hove Albion and Arsenal.
Collectively, those three had £1.08billion of debt owed in shareholder loans
recorded in their 2022-23 accounts.
Everton’s profligacy during the reign of Farhad Moshiri sees
them top the list with £451million borrowed in interest-free loans from the
Iran-born businessman, a sum expected to be written off when The Friedkin
Group completes its looming takeover of the club.
Brighton come next with £373million owed to Tony Bloom,
their long-standing owner, in another interest-free arrangement. That
outstanding sum had been trimmed thanks to a £33m repayment during the 2022-23
season but had previously increased every year since 2013.
Arsenal’s shareholder borrowings are much more recent. A
refinancing of existing debt in 2020 saw them draw down a loan from parent
company Kroenke Sports & Entertainment and, as of the 2022-23 accounts,
that sum now stands at £259million. The precise rates of interest on that
shareholder loan have not been disclosed, but Arsenal’s last two sets of
accounts showed interest paid on total debts (including £10.2m worth of
debentures) to be £4.3m. That is less than half the interest Arsenal had
previously paid when holding external debt.
Existing loans can be converted into shares, wiping out the
borrowing and placing a club beyond the coming scrutiny. It will not be a
concern to half a dozen sides, including City, Tottenham Hotspur,
Newcastle and Manchester United, who held no shareholder loans when filing
their most recent set of accounts.
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