Steve Lansdown wipes out 35m debt

http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/Steve-...million-debt/story-20425643-detail/story.html


Now to all you idiots who question this man and say he should sell the club...... Grow up and be grateful we have Steve!

 

Staggering. Great man and thanks

 

He has not wiped out his own created debt out.

It it is still in the club in the form of shares [equity]. If anybody wanted to buy the club they would almost certainly have to buy out that shareholding. Nobody in their right mind would buy the club because purchasing those shares would still mean they would not own the ground, that is owned by a separate company again owned in the main by Mr Lansdown.

I would question why a FC can go from operating profit to accruing losses of tens of millions, and losing ownership of it biggest asset [the ground] in six/seven years.

The club is such a toxic mess only idiots would suggest it can be sold.

 

Well they are out there...

It angers me when people criticise SL and say he is no longer interested in the club, We are still his number 1 priority.

God bless sir steve

 

would we want some of them?!

 

Agreed

 

Cliftonville - you misunderstand the basics of corporate financing - a debt is an amount of money that a corporate entity owes to a third party in the future. The third party can petition to have the company liquidated if the terms of the debt are breached. Ask Portsmouth, Coventry and even the once mighty Glasgow Rangers about that.

Equity or shares, on the other hand, are an investment in the company and confer no rights to the owner of the shares other than representation at a shareholder meeting and an ownership stake in the company. Unless they are preference shares with a fixed dividend attached to them, which the article does not mention, then the share owners have absolutely no entitlement to anything else from the company until such time that they sell the shares. At that time they are due the funds from the acquirer which may be the company itself or a third party. In other words, Steve has decided to forgo the possibility of getting this cash back until such time that the shares are sold. There is minimal chance of that happening. If it does happen, the price is set by negotiation which is usually a multiple of earnings for a profitable company or asset value if it is an asset rich company with a poor revenue outlook. BCFC is neither apart from the stadium which is owned by a separate entity.

Football clubs which are not publicly traded are an illiquid stock - in other words unless we get to the Premier League and become sexy or some random benefactor decided he would like to lose a lot of money, Steve has essentially written this money off.

The other huge benefit to the club is that it removes debt burden from the balance sheet and keeps us 35 million pounds more away from the threat of administration.

This is a gift to the club. Simple as that.

Thank you Steve.......... now you try saying it.

 

Well explained Tampa....and well done to Sir Steven of the Lansdowns. If thats not putting the club first, what is?????

 

I do understand that.

The situation is different to the clubs mentioned. Mr Lansdown has stated previously what he has intended to do with debts. The club accounts in the past identified debts would be met by its owner not a third party.

Mr Lansdown is restructuring his unnecessary constant losses. The possibility is minimal to non existent, but those shares could be sold. He has not forgone any possibility of getting his money back. It is no gift, it is obviously not a great altruistic act. These shares have not been donated to say the Supporters Club/Trust.

By being the majority shareholder and turning debts into equity Mr Lansdown has further strengthened his hold over BCFC as the majority shareholder. BCFC rules give him total control [he changed those rules to allow this]. His shareholding with Mr Hargreaves must be approaching 90%.

The performance of the club on and off the pitch has been abysmal. With the FC not owning the stadium, one individual in total control it all equals something nobody in their right mind would put money into. I won't applaud that.












.

 

tampa you pretty much took some of the words from my mouth....

simply:-

I have a box...it contains ? £1000 ? and ten people have 100 shares each.
but keeping that box in storage has cost £500... one of the 9 is the only one to be able to pay the fee, so you make 1500 shares nine of them keep 100 shares and he keeps 600 of them!

effectively the 1000 / 1500 = .66p not £1 = 9 have £66 not £100, he has 600 x .66 = £396

9X 66 = £594+ 1 @ £406 = £100

The box or storage are not significant it could be anything, it is for an example only.........there should BE ENOUGH INFO for all to work out or see the BASIC way it works...!

EDIT NOTE ADDED
Clifton whilst some of your reasoning "fits in" the 2 things stadium and "loans" are published separate and at the moment kept separate ....any further info as to the why's would cause confusion to the majority at the moment it is

KISS

 

What a massive gesture,full credit to the man.

 

And don't forget that the remaining 20 million debt on the balance sheet that is owed to Steve Lansdown is interest free and has no repayment date - in other words it cannot be called in by Steve at any time and thus is another step further away form administration. It costs the club zero to service it. That alone would save us 1 million quid a year at a very conservative 5% interest rate that a financial institution would charge.

The man has made mistakes but it is his money that has been lost. Of course the rest of us have lost hair, good nights sleep and hopes and aspirations for our club over the past few seasons that a price cannot be put on! But that is the price of supporting your local team and not following the bright lights of the big boys..........

 

I'm grateful that we have an owner with such a lasse faire attitude to money, but it was SL and SL alone that allowed the massive overspend on rubbish players and clueless managers in the first place which took us from the brink of the Premiership to the brink of division 4.

 

here here the man has let us get in this mess,so he has to take responcibility for it,the club have purchased some dross and have appointed wrong managers.

 

Does look as though Cottrell is making a pretty good start in weeding out-

Having read comments by the Forest fans when he was appointed, I did fear the worst, but so far I don't think I can remember a manager who has had such an immediate impact.

 

The headline loss number is bad, but then it was the 12 months to 31 May 2013, so the cost saving measures had not come into force then.

I would be interested to know how they propose to increase turnover (important for financial fair play) - perhaps if any of you go to the meeting on 21st January you could ask?

Never heard of PULA - is this his vehicle for supporting sport in Bristol?

 

Legal beagles and accountants can make us believe what ever they want us to believe with smoke and mirrors. The blame game will continue and you will never convince me that there is anyone other than Steve Lansdown to blame for the financial mess in which Bristol City finds itself today.

Perhaps this is his way of saying sorry, but again we will never know because you can ask 10 people for their opinion on this statement and get 10 different and contradictory answers. All that should interest us is will Bristol City still be here in 5 years and will we be competing at a sustainable level? The biggest priority today is survival in this division because any other outcome might make these financial and operational happenings null and void.

For the first time in many years I have some confidence in the man in charge of the on field part of the deal and when you consider that is where we live and die then that is the area of most concern. All the statements coming from the top are window dressing and as long as they are supporting SC where he needs it most then I am quite happy. Most of our posters, whatever their thoughts, seem to have a fuzzier and warmer feeling today and perhaps that in itself is good enough to bring some satisfaction to a season of change.

 

I worked with the original 'Bouncing Czech' - Robert Maxwell for 6years.
Inver's correct.
'Legal beagles and accountants can make us believe what ever they want us to believe with smoke and mirrors'.