It’s that time of year where we all scratch our heads, go cross-eyed looking at a bunch of numbers and try to figure out what the fairly limited set of accounts for Yeovil Football & Athletic Club, the trading business of Yeovil Town F.C., actually mean.
The financial statements for the year ending June 30 2022 were published on Companies House on Friday (what do you mean you missed them?!) along with those of Yeovil Town Holdings Limited, the company which holds the exclusive buy-back rights to land at and surrounding Huish Park.
The obvious big change from previous accounts for both companies is the name they are filed under, chairman and owner Martin Hellier rather than……..that other guy – you know the one.
The other thing to say up front is these are historical and cover a period exactly a year ago, therefore they don’t necessarily the financial health of the club today. However, some interesting things did happen in that same period, notably the sale of Huish Park and surrounding land to South Somerset District Council (SSDC).
So what’s worth knowing from these accounts? Well, according to what we can see:
- The amount SSDC paid for Huish Park was £1.71m – or to be exact £1,719,226.
- The amount which the club has to pay SSDC each year to continue to operate at Huish Park is £195,000 – thanks very much…..the other guy.
The statement says: “During the year the company sold its freehold and buildings. On the same day the company entered in to a leaseback arrangement with an annual rental charge of £195,000 per annum, with a rent free period for the first year.“ - The buy-back option on the land and buildings from SSDC runs until 17th May 2026.
The statement says: “The company has retained the option to repurchase the land and buildings from the existing owners, with that option lapsing on 17th May 2026.“ - In the period ending June 30th 2022, the club owed Sport England just over £1m (£1,014,484 to be precise) for the loan it took out to overcome the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. It has 20 years to pay this back.
The statement says: “…. £1,014,484 represents a loan issued by the English Sports Council which is repayable over a 20-year term and is secured by way of a floating charge over all assets of the company.”
As with most football clubs, not least those operating at non-League level, YF&AC is technically an insolvent company, but – as football finance expert Kieran Maguire has told us on previous editions of the Gloverscast – that is not a huge issue as long as the owner has the money to pay suppliers.
The accounts of YTFC Holdings tell even less of a story. Again filed by Hellier, they basically show the land held by the company – everything on the Huish Park footprint except the stadium itself – was sold during the period covered by the accounts, the year up until June 30th 2022.
Apart from that it is basically an empty company aside from some debt owed YF&AC, which it owns.
One other interesting nugget which watchers of Companies House records may have spotted is the discontinuation of a strike-off of Max Mae Limited, a company which describes the nature of its business as “development of building projects.”
This company has its registered office at Huish Park and has two directors, one is Jed McCrory, the businessman and owner of Stratford Town, and the other is……that other guy whose name we don’t mention. You know the one, he used to own Yeovil Town before Hellier.
At end of May, its Companies House records showed that a notice had been served against it for a compulsory strike-off due to not filing its accounts on time. But, on Thursday of this week it filed “accounts for a dormant company” meaning the strike-off has been lifted and it continues to trade.
What does that mean? Probably very little, but we’ll keep an eye on it.
For those that are interested, the full account document can be read below.
[pdf-embedder url=”https://gloverscast.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/YTFAC-Accounts.pdf” title=”YTFAC Accounts”]
Is the buy-back option frozen until May 2026 at the same price that the council paid for Huish Park? Does the amount paid in respect of the annual rental charge get deducted from the buy-back figure?
SSDC have a Q&A on the deal see here: https://gloverscast.co.uk/the-purchase-and-leaseback-by-ssdc-of-the-ground-at-ytfc-summary-and-questions-answered/
I dioubt the (unbelievably high) rental will be deducted from the buy-back fee as that would mean YT could buy it back after 5 years for c£0.
No it doesn’t. The buy-back option only extends until 2026 – and as the first year is a rent-free period, that means that the club would have paid “only” just under £600k by then, leaving a balancing payment of £1.1 million to be found.
That rental figure seems hellishly high at £195K PA = 11%. I thought I remember the council rep suggesting the rental was equivalent to approximately 7% – the usual commercial rent levels? Interesting to note if this is a fixed sum or varies with base rate changes. However all our questions maybe ‘commercial in confidence’ and obviously Martin (being a shrewd businessman) will have gone over this very carefully. On the face of it Martin (and other shareholders) will need to have deep pockets at least until some money starts to come back into the club from limited development of the land. Happy days!!!