Hearts’ £29m debt and 200 creditors
Edinburgh club will find out today if it faces SFA sanctions for going bust owing £29m to 200 creditors
MORE than 200 businesses, individuals and public bodies are owed money after Hearts went bust with debts of around £29 million.
The Tynecastle club’s list of creditors has been released by administrators BDO as a new buyer for the club is sought.
The taxman is owed more than £1.8m along with the Scottish Police Authority, other football clubs and Edinburgh City Council.
MORE than 200 businesses, individuals and public bodies are owed money after Hearts went bust with debts of around £29m. Unpaid bills include one for a Remembrance Day wreath.
A list of creditors of the Scottish Premier League club has been released by administrators BDO as a new buyer for the club is being sought.
Those whose invoices have not been paid by the Tynecastle side include HM Revenue and Customs, owed £1.89m, the Scottish Police Authority, and Edinburgh City Council, owed £18,000.
Hearts will find out today if they are to face punishment from the Scottish Football Association for going into administration.
The Judicial Panel Tribunal postponed from July 18 been rearranged for 1.30pm today with possible penalties including a fine, a signing embargo, and suspension or termination of Hearts’ SFA membership.
Among those owed money are property companies, and there are bills unpaid for mobile phones, laundry and hotels. Liverpool, Livingston and Rangers football clubs are also creditors.
The Lady Haig Poppy Factory in Edinburgh is owed £185. A spokeswoman stressed this was not an outstanding donation but was an unpaid purchase from the factory, most likely to be a wreath.
The club has in the past made great play of its links to the First World War, with seven first-team players killed on the Western Front. Last month it was announced the Heart of Midlothian War Memorial is to be reinstated at Haymarket.
By far the biggest creditor of the club is the bank Ukio Bankas, in which former club owner Vladimir Romanov previously had a controlling interest. It has gone into administration and is owed more than £15m by Hearts.
The bank, whose administrator this week declared ongoing bids for the club to be unacceptable, owns almost 30% of Hearts.
It holds a floating charge over Tynecastle Stadium, giving it the power over a Company Voluntary Arrangement.
This means that if the stadium is sold off – an option being considered by administrators – the cash would not go into the creditor’s pot.
BDO, which has announced an initial meeting of creditors on August 12, outlined the club’s debt in its “statement of administrator’s proposals”, sent to those owed money by the club and filed with Companies House.
In addition to the £29m debt, shares in the club amount to £14.6m, which brings the total deficit to more than £44m.
Trade and expense creditors are owed almost £1.2m, and non-football employees are due £58,500.
Hearts last season secured a deal to pay a £1.6million tax debt over three years and the first instalment was thought to have been paid.
Major shareholder UBIG, which is also insolvent, is owed £8.2m. A further £1.2m is owed to a British Virgin Islands-based company called Milson Capital Corp for money loaned to pay wages.
UBIG, which like Ukio Bankas was one of Vladimir Romanov’s business interests, is also insolvent after ending its subsidies to the club before last year.
Football debt is listed at £535,000 with most of it wages owed to players, and cash owed to redundant players. Other creditors include the Big Hearts Community Trust, owed £34,000.
BDO has recorded a trading surplus of £958,000 since taking over on June 20. About £900,000 has come from season-ticket sales.
The administrators also secured a £100,000 fee for Arvydas Novikovas, who joined German side Erzgebirge Aue in the summer.
The club have also received £48,000 in donations, which have been ring-fenced.
Administrators’ fees so far work out at £227,000 but BDO reiterated that it does not intend to draw a fee “until agreed with Ukio Bankas administrators”.
Ukio Bankas administrator Gintaras Adomonis this week told BDOto continue negotiations with fans’ group the Foundation of Hearts and Five Stars Football Ltd, which lists controversial former Livingston owner Angelo Massone as a director. Athird offer placed by HMFC Ltd was rejected outright.
Adomonis warned that he would have no option but to force the liquidation of the club and sell Tynecastle separately if no offer was forthcoming.
MOVING MONUMENT: Work starts to shift Hearts’ war memorial to make way for tram works.