The accounts, 2014-15, from Companies House

[Deleted User 2299]

I think it's safe to say that it is continuing 'not good news'. There is no spin in the actual accounts.

Certain ongoing legal matters seem to have been 'concealed' . There are loads of accounts-savvy people posting about it but I fear if we pasted their remaeks they would just be dismissed as 'anti-owner' or not actually accounts-savvy at all.

Just a couple of bad news items there in black & white the debt to GFH IS REDUCED TO £16m to GFH it is now £15m. You will also find that in addition to loans, Cellino has put in £14.5m of share capital. Oh and you will find the total payments Cellino and his sons took out of the club were £16k. Oh and losses massively reduced. Debts to thirds parties barring trade creditors are virtually nil.

Nobody but nobody thinks Cellino is ideal but he is without a doubt our best owner from a purely financial prospective since Leslie silver. He has put his money where his mouth is.

Oh you analyzed these accounts so quickly

Might take me a few days but ill get there.

I am sure you are really nice bloke but your views on occasions are without reasoning, rationality or actual evidence. The vast majority of fans are completely in accord as regards the negatives re Cellino. There are others who choose embellish the negatives or even make up things regarding his administration and fail to acknowledge the positives which have come about as a direct result of him being in situ. He played a blinder wrestling the catering rights away from compass, simalirly with the season ticket sales. Both deals entered Into by the previous administration to the detriment of the long term financial future of the club. Might it occur to you that maybe the enterprise & macron deals and others might have been entered into by his predessors on a similar basis. The courts will decide, maybe he will win maybe he won't - but I am confident he is entering into these battles because the club will benefit if they are won. He's done a great job also reducing the overhead of the club look at the significant reduction in non playing management /administration staff.

Yes he's a nut case on occasions, sometimes he does have a detrimental effect on the team & probably his position is untenable but anybody with the slightest degree of understanding has got to acknowledge he has done a reasonable job in addressing the perilous financial position of the club.... And is the first director since Silver who has put his own money (inc company money) into the club.

As I'm sure you're a really nice Lass

Not sure why you quoted me with all this, I only wrote: "Oh you analyzed these accounts so quickly Might take me a few days but ill get there."

But, if you've now finished analyzing the accounts and now analyzing my posts overall, remember I think similar about your posts, you over analyze and lose yourself.
If you didn't take a look last time, take a look now, the strangest post I've read to date. http://www.lufctalk.com/forums/viewtopi ... 9&start=10

Totally over analyzed using the most bizarre reasoning with zero rationality and evidently very wrong.


Again I'm not sure why you quoted me just to try and devalue my opinions all over the forum.

MOT

[NottinghamWhite]

Here we go in bite size pieces.

Short analysis of Club Accounts 3rd Mar 2016 – thanks to SkyGod for previous help.

This is a broad brush analysis based on a very quick look at the accounts published today. They are my honest opinion and do not express the views of any other party. If I've misunderstood something I would welcome the Club explaining that to me at the earliest opportunity and I will publish corrections.

On the Club’s Operating Costs:
1/ Turnover fell £872,000, a fall of 3.4%
2/ Gate revenue increased by £200,000, an increase of 2.3%
3/ Merchandise income fell by £857,000, a fall of 15.5%
4/ Cost of sales fell by £2.29m, a fall of 37%
5/ Profit from selling players was much more than I expected at £9.8m
6/ No tax was due to be paid this year
7/ Commercial revenue held up better than I was expecting and fell less than 1%
8/ Overall wages headline figure (as oft quoted by the national press) fell by £2.3m to £17.8m
9/ It is important to remember that the headline wages figure of £17.8m includes salaries of 69 administration/management staff, 351 matchday staff and 12 football management personnel. Also included in this headline figure is £1.2m for redundancy and ex-gratia payments made. Actual wages spent on players will be much less than £17.8m but is not specified in the accounts
10/ Directors remuneration fell from £522,000 in 2014 to just £17,000 in 2015

On the Club’s Assets and Liabilities
1/ A surprise to me is that GFH wrote off £914,000 of debt previously due to them
2/ GFH have agreed not to charge interest on their remaining loans
3/ As a result of this the Club made a profit on loan interest instead of £2m loss last year
4/ GFH have been repaid £3m of their outstanding debt and their debt reduces now to £17m
5/ Eleonora Sport swapped £6.5m of their debt for shares in the Club
6/ Eleonora Sport were also repaid some of their debt in cash and are now owed £4m
7/ M. Cellino had previously made a loan of £1.3m to the Club in 2014 which was repaid in cash during the year to June 2015
8/ Short-term and Long-term liabilities were £54m in 2014 and are now £44m
9/ GFH have agreed to accept repayment of their £17m in annual instalments up to 2032 (seventeen years) unless the club is promoted when most of the debt becomes due immediately
10/ There are a number of legal claims against the Club and no provision has been made for these in the accounts. No potential cost is given
11/ There are a number of claims against the Club from HM Revenue and Customs and no provision has been made for these in the accounts. No potential cost is given
12/ The Club is operating without a significant overdraft at the bank (max of £36,000 during the year)

On Cashflow
In rounded numbers:
1/ Club spent £10m more cash on Administrative Expenses than it received as Income
2/ Club spent £6m cash buying new players
3/ Club got back £10m cash from selling existing players
4/ Club got £10m cash from Eleonora Sport and GFH buying new shares
5/ Club spent £5m cash repaying loans to Eleonora Sport, M. Cellino and GFH
6/ Net effect of cash movement was to end with £1m less cash than it started with

On the Club’s Ownership
1/ During the year the Club issued 14.5m new shares
2/ Eleonora Sport took 6.5m shares and cancelled £6.5m of their debt
3/ 8m of these new shares were purchased for cash; 3m in May 2015 and 5m in June 2015
4/ GFH (via UK Investment Company) acquired 3m of these new shares
5/ Eleonora Sport acquired the remaining 5m shares

On Eleonora Sport
1/ Eleonora Sport own 83.6% of share capital of Leeds United Football Club
2/ They also own 75% of share capital of Leeds United Media Ltd and Leeds United Conference and Events Ltd
3/ The total investment made in acquiring these shares is £30.7m
4/ The net book value of their holdings in LUFC and the other two companies is £30.7m
5/ Eleonora Sport have £7m cash in the bank

ENDS

[Deleted User 728]

4/ Cost of sales fell by £2.29m, a fall of 37%

That is a staggering difference.
It shows the positive effects of Cellino's ruthless cost-cutting.
It means whatever we're paying for things like catering, hospitality and other services has been seriously reduced, either through a change of wholesaler/supplier or tough negotiation.

6/ No tax was due to be paid this year

Come again ??

Directors remuneration fell from £522,000 in 2014 to just £17,000 in 2015

This shows Cellino's treating it as his own business (and to me is a positive sign)

10/ There are a number of legal claims against the Club and no provision has been made for these in the accounts. No potential cost is given
11/ There are a number of claims against the Club from HM Revenue and Customs and no provision has been made for these in the accounts. No potential cost is given

These two lines scare the crap out of me and are a very bad sign, IMHO.
How can the Rev be after us if we're due to pay no tax ??


TBH, accountancy bores me silly.
In my working life I've always tried to cut costs and increase sales - if you can do that, you're laughing. So, looking at it simplistically I agree we're moving in the right direction, but I am also cautious about those two warning lines up there.

I don't like it, but like someone else said it's only an overview at the moment.

Who are the accountancy professionals in here ?
We have a couple, don't we ??

[Another Northern Soul]

Copied from RevIke who I believe is in accountancy or has experience of being.

' Cellino is putting in "his own money" simply because the alternative would be administration, and he/ES would have much more to lose if that happened.

It's not a noble move. He is not acting as a benefactor. Admitting his mistake, loaning the club an equivalent amount to what he overpaid, and then writing off such a loan so the club's share value realistically matched its market value - that would have been an admirable move. But he didn't do that.

Cellino didn't even write off his personal loan for £1.3m, instead paying himself back in full in less than 18 months. So all indications are that he will also want to recoup his money spent on shares, which would require any buyer to pay an inflated price for those shares.

Everything else is simply a delaying tactic. He could have swapped a big chunk of the GFH debt for a loan from himself, but instead agreed to payments spread out for a ridiculous length of time. He's gone "three monkeys" on the lawsuits and personnel claims, which only moves those likely expenses to the current fiscal year or the next. As others have said, he's created a hole that the club can only dig itself out of with promotion, and then crippled the club's ability to do that by failing to invest sufficiently in the team, which in turn affects turnover and continues the downward spiral ... '

[isrodger]

Here we go in bite size pieces.

Short analysis of Club Accounts 3rd Mar 2016 – thanks to SkyGod for previous help.


8/ Overall wages headline figure (as oft quoted by the national press) fell by £2.3m to £17.8m
9/ It is important to remember that the headline wages figure of £17.8m includes salaries of 69 administration/management staff, 351 matchday staff and 12 football management personnel. Also included in this headline figure is £1.2m for redundancy and ex-gratia payments made. Actual wages spent on players will be much less than £17.8m but is not specified in the accounts
10/ Directors remuneration fell from £522,000 in 2014 to just £17,000 in 2015

ENDS

There Is a sort of inaccuracieicies in these figures the company started the year with 107 admin staff ended with 69 part of their salaries and the severance pay is in these accounts the cost will not be in this years accounts.

Secondly players wages would have in year ended 2015 would have in part included the likes of Norris/ kenny & their severance.

Finally more or less the whole year includes the salaries of warnock, Morrison, Hunt & Pearce - probably a saving of £3.5m - I am led to believe salaries are now below £13m - we are give or take £2m breaking even

[isrodger]

Nesslin happens to be female

(laughing with not at you)

That explains a lot ...this might be a tad out of order - But it Should be viewed in the spirit of humour it was intended

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wse_hgca220

[Deleted User 2299]

Nesslin happens to be female

(laughing with not at you)

That explains a lot ...this might be a tad out of order - But it Should be viewed in the spirit of humour it was intended

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wse_hgca220

New attempt at devaluing my opinions, this time using humour

It only helps me understand you better and why you support Cellino, maybe you will also like this wannabe President as much?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6QEqoYgQxw

[Deleted User 2747]

Nesslin happens to be female

(laughing with not at you)

That explains a lot ...this might be a tad out of order - But it Should be viewed in the spirit of humour it was intended

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wse_hgca220

Let us not even go there, please! If the comments below that video are anything to go by!

[dlw10]

Well, I called off the accounts today and had a flick through them and I have to say (as usual) isrodger's comments pretty much sum up my feelings about them. Overall, the figures show a sensible first full year under Cellino's ownership in which he has managed to rid the club of a number of burdensome financial restrictions created or imposed by the previous regimes. Operating costs are down, the owners are no longer taking massive fees for doing sod all, the repayment to GFH is now structured at hopefully sustainable levels whether or not we get to the Premier League, staff numbers and therefore costs are well down, or will be as the severance costs unwind in the next accounts, the Cellino family is taking peanuts in salary costs (altho admittedly we don't know what expenses they are taking through the admin costs in much the same way we didn't know how much Bates was costing us with his constant jetting from Monaco!). We can now benefit to the full from catering success and we have the season ticket moneys to come in full this year. The scale of the improvement in the P and L is a tad misleading due to the inclusion of the McCormack "profit" on his sale which is clearly a major factor in the net profit/loss calculation but there are other things that will begin to "come through" next season such as the additional TV money coming from the next Sky Prem deal which is a cool £2m extra a year. It was comforting that gate revenue was also up marginally despite the frequent complaints about the way his antics are keeping attendances down. So, lots of good solid stuff in there and a vast improvement on what was going on under GFH.
If we are to be stuck with Cellino for the forseable, which in my view we are, then at least in terms of the financial structure he has put in place we ought to get stronger in that area. As isrodger often says, in an ideal world none of us would want Cellino owning us but he's there so lets at least celebrate one aspect that appears to be sensible and not mad.

[Aces]

I can't be bothered to look at the accounts, it would take an financial expert to analyse them correctly and that would only be correct, if they saw all the paperwork. None of us will have this opportunity, so trying to prove fully just how good or bad they are, is impossible. Only this summer will show us how good, or bad they are, when the calibre of new players start arriving. If they are really good quality, then we can assume the accounts are good, if we get a few more Cani's then it means they are bad.