BSH: Further Losses Expected

Birmingham Sports Holdings yesterday made an announcement to the stock exchange warning that there would be a substantial increase in the loss suffered by the company for the year ending June 30, 2018. The poor results are blamed on the increase in spending on player registrations and staff costs.

Hong Kong Stock Exchange

The announcement can be viewed here.

In all honesty, this profit warning was to be expected.

BSH lost around £17million according to the unaudited accounts for the first six months of the financial year and thus there should no surprise that these end of year accounts will be worse than last year, when BSH lost HK$182million (around £17.8million at current exchange rates).

The question of course is just how bad these accounts will be.

At the moment I can only work on rumours but the word from contacts in Hong Kong is that there would be little surprise if the accounts show a loss of HK$300million (£29.3million) or more.

Shares in BSH closed on Tuesday afternoon at a shade under HK$0.10 each, 33% lower than they were trading six months ago and nearly 50% lower than they were 12 months ago.

While the accounts for the parent company and the football club are not exactly the same, a vast proportion of the revenue BSH currently makes is made by the club and it’s possible that the club accounts will be similarly bad.

Accounts for the club are due to be filed with Companies House by 31 December, 2018.

These figures should go some way to explaining why BCFC are being hit so hard for their “Profit and Sustainability” results for last year and why it is so vital that they save money this year.

Although Blues have cut their wage bill due to the return of the five loanees from last year along with various other players being loaned out this season, the level of losses point to a club that is at the moment not being run in any kind of sustainable fashion.

That leaves both BCFC and BSH at the mercy of the investors such as Graticity Real Estate Development (GRED), Dragon Villa and Chigwell Holdings to keep loaning money to the company.

While this money has still been forthcoming, it’s business as usual at BSH – but with no true idea of just how much money these investors (or their backers) can afford to put in there will always be the fear for me that the supply will dry up with the attendant woes that will bring.

BSH are due to announce their final results for the financial year to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange no later than September 30, 2018. They will also confirm in the next few days to the HKSE the board meeting required to sign off the audited results.

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