Question re: Bloom getting his money back

[symyjym]

Tony Bloom was owed £120,252,105 by the club at 30 June 2012.

In addition he had ploughed £24 million into the club via purchasing shares.

Since 30 June 2012 he has converted £40 million of the loan into shares, which is an effective way of saying he has written £40 million off the loan.

He WILL NOT make any attempt to recoup any of this outstanding money before 2023 at the earliest, according to documents lodged, and to be honest, I suspect he has actually written the whole thing off.

I would have thought that it would be considered a family investment for future generations or he would get his money back if he needed to by selling the club. It's money in the bank however you look at it.

 

[Creaky]

Tony Bloom was owed £120,252,105 by the club at 30 June 2012.

In addition he had ploughed £24 million into the club via purchasing shares.

Since 30 June 2012 he has converted £40 million of the loan into shares, which is an effective way of saying he has written £40 million off the loan.

He WILL NOT make any attempt to recoup any of this outstanding money before 2023 at the earliest, according to documents lodged, and to be honest, I suspect he has actually written the whole thing off.

Not really as his share of the equity in the club has increased in fact what it has done is dilute the holdings of the other shareholders.

Converting some of the "cash" in the Directors Loan Account into equity has also backed up his assurance to the auditors that he was able and willing to cover losses for this financial year - without this assurance they would have had no option but to state that the club was insolvent and was unable to continue trading.

Over time I can envisage all the loans TB has made to the club converted into equity but I can also see the time in the future when the value of his equity holding will be greater than the original investment. Hopefully this won't be too far into the future because of course for this to happen the club will have to be successful on the field.

 

[Publius Ovidius]

I think he definitely has. He would be a ****ing AWFUL businessman if he was sort of relying on getting any of his money back.

The man is comfortably a billionnaire. This is his gift to the Albion.

Really...a billionaire? I can't remember seeing him near the top of the Sunday times rich list. Are you sure?

 

[dejavuatbtn]

He would of had a result if we had gone up via the play offs could of recouped 30-40 million.

Not sure how, unless, of course, he kept the same squad, on the sames wages, to be relegated in their first season.

I still can't quite get my head round someone, irrespective of how rich (he's not in the Abramovich league), can give away that much money. He may be after a profit in selling out, his businesses may go tits up. Never say never.
At least, for the moment, we are all sitting pretty, despite the problems with FFP and its resulting inflation of the cost of supporting our team.

 

[KZNSeagull]

I was talking about this the other day and can understand why the club is perhaps placing more importance on getting promotion than maybe the average, long-standing fan is. Promotion is, I would imagine, the only way the club will be able to afford to even partly pay back Tony Bloom.

On this point, as El Pres and others have said, I don't think he wants or is expecting to be paid back. The importance of getting to the Premier League is that it means that the club will be able to run without him having to fork out every year (if it still runs at a loss, we really are a bit pooped!), which is the board's shorter term goal.

the other issue you raised in another post re ownership of the club is a good one and is one that a few on here do not like. I have no idea what the current situation with that is and assume that the ground is a Bloom family asset and not the clubs. No doubt someone will put me right...

 

[Moshe Gariani]

The Bloom family are INCREDIBLY nice, genuine, honest and devoted to the Albion. There will be many people on here who have been lucky enough to meet them in person - I joined those ranks last week and can say it was an absolute delight.

The club literally could not be in any better hands. Ray Bloom's words to me, which I am sure he has used with many similarly starstruck fans, were a simple request to "Just enjoy it - Tony is doing it for the fans and it is his pleasure".

 

[Brighton Breezy]

the other issue you raised in another post re ownership of the club is a good one and is one that a few on here do not like. I have no idea what the current situation with that is and assume that the ground is a Bloom family asset and not the clubs. No doubt someone will put me right...

Would be interesting to know the exact details.

As I said, I don't think Tony Bloom would do anything to put this club at risk. Not for a second. It is just in general I don't like the idea of a football club - or any institution so important to a local community - being basically owned by one person who can pretty much do what they like with it.

 

[Bevendean Hillbilly]

To answer the rest though, my understanding is that this is an interest free loan that will be converted to shares if the club does not pay it back in about 20 years time (or 20 years from when the Amex opened). As TB is still putting money into the club, we do not even know how much the club owes him. But the prem league is the only place that the club will be able to partly pay him back, if he actually wants to be paid back.

But no, repaying loans to TB cannot be used as an excuse for putting up prices and I don't believe that the club has ever said this, have they? Paying the increased running costs, yes, paying loans to TB off, no.[/QUOTE

I imagine he does.

 

[Acker79]

On Monday life-long Albion fan Bloom assumed the role of chairman after he converted £18 million worth of loans to the club into shares taking his holding to 75%.

He also pledged another £80 million to the club as unsecured interest-free loans repayable in 2023 with an option to convert them into further shares.

He said: “When a convertible loan is issued there needs to be a returnable date. At that time I could then get some of the money back, obviously it's not all going to be coming back, or that date can be increased by another 20 years.

“At any point in the next 14 years I can convert it to shares so we shouldn't read anything into the 2023.”

If the new chairman decided to do so he would own more than 90% of the club.

He added: “Who knows where the club is then (2023) and what the financial state of the club is.

“There's no security on the money. That's the key thing the supporters need to know. The money is going to the stadium.​

http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/4387...__says_new_Brighton_and_Hove_Albion_chairman/

http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/4378...es_over_as_Brighton_and_Hove_Albion_chairman/
http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/4378765.Exclusive_interview_with_Albion_s_new_chairman/
http://www.theargus.co.uk/sport/4384314.Comment__Better_than_Abramovich/

 

[KZNSeagull]

Would be interesting to know the exact details.

As I said, I don't think Tony Bloom would do anything to put this club at risk. Not for a second. It is just in general I don't like the idea of a football club - or any institution so important to a local community - being basically owned by one person who can pretty much do what they like with it.

No, neither do I, but it would be good to know what contingencies are in place for when he passes away, for example.

Edit. I do remember reading in "We want Falmer", that the money for the build of the stadium was ringfenced just in case he was run over by a bus - no-one other than the club could touch it.

 

[El Presidente]

Thanks for explaining it.

Say we got promoted next season and benefited from the Premier League TV cash, do you think the club would suggest paying back part of the loan early to Tony Bloom even if he did not ask for it?

I don't think I would be alone in thinking the bloke deserves some of his millions back eventually.

I guess it is difficult to tell how pressing the need for an eventual return would be without knowing more about Bloom's actual fortune. If he has billions, I doubt he'll mind. If it is substantially less it might be more of an issue.

No I don't think it will happen. Tony Bloom IS the club, he owns 90%+ of the shares, so whatever he wants he gets. From my understanding he does not have billions, but has sufficient millions left over from his investment in the Albion to live a life that doesn't involve worrying about whether he can pay the 'leccy bill.

His aim is for the Albion to play in the Premier League, but not to do a Palace and budget for instant relegation. Therefore he will allow the playing budget to be competitive for a club wanting to retain its status in the division. Southampton have made themselves a decent sustainable force in this division by spending money, and their sacking of Nerdy Nige, which seemed harsh at the time, now looks a masterstroke.

This is not Palace beating for the sake of it, but Parish and Co have not given Holloway a competitive budget, and so he has had to rely on last year's squad (remember since beating us at Selhurst they only won SEVEN out of the remaining 26 matches) minus it's two best players, and has topped that up with journeymen, never-wases and hopeful punts from the lower leagues.

Also remember that TB is still subsidising every seat at every match at the Amex to the tune of £15 per person.

 

[symyjym]

Would be interesting to know the exact details.

As I said, I don't think Tony Bloom would do anything to put this club at risk. Not for a second. It is just in general I don't like the idea of a football club - or any institution so important to a local community - being basically owned by one person who can pretty much do what they like with it.

Unfortunately there isn’t, and wasn’t a queue of people willing to invest. He stood up to the plate and did what he had to do and I would rather have someone who has risked their own money rather than some unknown foreign owners coming in who have no connection with the club and who will then sell on to the unknown next foreign owner etc etc and repeat forever.

 

[El Presidente]

He would of had a result if we had gone up via the play offs could of recouped 30-40 million.

Nonsense.

 

[El Presidente]

some unknown foreign owners coming in who have no connection with the club and who will then sell on to the unknown next foreign owner etc etc and repeat forever.

aka doing a Pompey.

 

[El Presidente]

Not really as his share of the equity in the club has increased in fact what it has done is dilute the holdings of the other shareholders.

Converting some of the "cash" in the Directors Loan Account into equity has also backed up his assurance to the auditors that he was able and willing to cover losses for this financial year - without this assurance they would have had no option but to state that the club was insolvent and was unable to continue trading.

Over time I can envisage all the loans TB has made to the club converted into equity but I can also see the time in the future when the value of his equity holding will be greater than the original investment. Hopefully this won't be too far into the future because of course for this to happen the club will have to be successful on the field.

I disagree, the conversion of debt to equity was an irrelevance as he already owned >90% of the shares, so has been an effective dictator for some time. In relation to the auditors, if he gave assurances that he was not going to collect until at least 2023 then they would have simply given a going concern qualification, which they have done in the existing accounts anyway.

 

[Brighton Breezy]

Unfortunately there isn’t, and wasn’t a queue of people willing to invest. He stood up to the plate and did what he had to do and I would rather have someone who has risked their own money rather than some unknown foreign owners coming in who have no connection with the club and who will then sell on to the unknown next foreign owner etc etc and repeat forever.

Completely agree and, as I said earlier, I don't think for a second Tony Bloom would do anything to put the club's future at risk.

The comment about individuals owning clubs is a more general football thing. I think we are very lucky to have someone like Bloom as our owner. If a club has to be owned by just one person, I would want that person to be Tony Bloom.

 

[Canonman]

Statue of Tony outside The Amex? there ought to be.

 

[symyjym]

Completely agree and, as I said earlier, I don't think for a second Tony Bloom would do anything to put the club's future at risk.

The comment about individuals owning clubs is a more general football thing. I think we are very lucky to have someone like Bloom as our owner. If a club has to be owned by just one person, I would want that person to be Tony Bloom.

Agreed

 

[BensGrandad]

I know a lot of figures have been banded about but what is the general opinion of TBs wealth as he never says anything or is on any rich lists.

The figures range from £500m to 'comfortably a biilionaire'.

 

[El Presidente]

Statue of Tony outside The Amex? there ought to be.

The Amex IS the statue of Tony Bloom.