New owners have put £167m into club since takeover
NEWCASTLE United’s owners have invested more than £167m into the club since completing the takeover last October.
That is according to the club’s latest set of accounts for the period ended June 30, 2021. These statements document the club’s finances before the £305m takeover, of course, when Mike Ashley was owner, but the penultimate section of the 34-page document reveals just how much has since been spent by the consortium.
In a section entitled subsequent events, the accounts confirm that, since acquisition, Saudi Arabia’s
Public Investment Fund (PIF), PCP Capital Partners and RB Sports & Media have injected equity funding totalling £167.9m into the company. This is partly in settlement of the outstanding loan owed to Ashley’s company, St James Holdings Limited. The accounts reveal that Ashley and companies under his control continued to provide loan facilities to the club during this 11-month financial period.
The total balance outstanding for the interest-free loan on June 30, 2021 was £106.9m, which was repayable on demand. As well as paying back this loan, the money Newcastle’s
owners have put into the club has, obviously, allowed the Magpies to buy players in January, which is referenced as ‘significant investment’ in the accounts.
The accounts disclose that, after the period end, the group ‘contracted for the purchase and sale of a number of players’.
The net cost of these transfers, excluding any contingent fees, was £112m and this includes the move for Joe Willock, the final transfer of the Ashley era, which will be paid back in instalments. To put that £112m spend into perspective, the figure for 2020 was just £36m.
Newcastle signed Kieran Trippier, Chris Wood, Bruno Guimaraes and Dan Burn on permanent deals in the mid-season window as well as Matt Targett on a loan deal.
The quintet have all played their part in the black-and-whites’ turnaround under Eddie Howe to help spare Newcastle the losses that would have been incurred with relegation to the Championship.
Although Newcastle’s owners did not necessarily anticipate spending quite so much in their first window in charge, in January, when it is not always easy to get value for money, the club’s position in the table was so perilous that they felt they had to. It remains to be seen how much the hierarchy will splash out in the summer, but the powers that be are keen to comply with the Premier League’s Profit and Sustainability rules, which only allow top-flight clubs to lose £105m over three seasons.
The message from the top is that this will be a summer of evolution rather than revolution, but players will be sold to make room for new arrivals. Part-owner Amanda Staveley has already confirmed that the club’s wage to turnover ratio is around 65%, which the part-owner admitted was ‘probably too high’.