As we heard into December, It won’t be long before the accounts for Birmingham City FC will be published at Companies House. These accounts will give a full insight into the financial situation of the club at the start of this season and should help us understand just how much money the club can spend this winter.
Birmingham Sports Holdings made an announcement to the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong yesterday to clarify their acquisition of a Chinese lottery company. The announcement cleared up some of the confusion re prior connections between the holding company and the lottery firm, as well as offering more insight into how BSH are going to make money from the project.
Birmingham Sports Holdings today confirmed in a voluntary announcement to the Hong Kong stock exchange that they have entered into an agreement to buy a Chinese lottery company. The announcement confirmed that the new company should guarantee a profit of around £3million for BSH over the next three years.
The rumour season is once again in full swing on social media, with rumours not just of impending incomings and exits at Blues but talk of potential changes in ownership. None of these rumours have any basis in fact as it stands – I wrote this article to explain why Blues won’t be sold any time soon.
Now that the dust has settled on the sacking of Garry Monk and the players have returned for testing ahead of pre-season training, transfers are once again becoming the focus of Birmingham City fans. Will Blues be spending big? Can they spend big?
Documents from Companies House confirm that a new subsidiary of Birmingham Sports Holdings has been created in the UK in the last fortnight which looks to be specifically to complete the sale of the stadium. This confirms previous thoughts that the club were looking to make moves to improve its standing for P&S purposes.
Derby County escaped sanction under the EFL Profit and Sustainability Rules by selling their stadium to another company owned by their owner Mel Morris. The sale and subsequent long term lease back ensured that the Rams made a profit last season and did not fall foul of the rules in the same way Blues did. Should Blues do the same thing with St Andrew’s?
While Blues secured their Championship status for another year by winning away at Rotherham on Monday, Birmingham Sports Holdings have been doing what it can to secure its own financial status on the Hong Kong stock exchange.
Statements made yesterday by Birmingham City and the EFL confirmed that neither the club nor the EFL will be appealing against the nine-point deduction laid down by the Disciplinary Commission in March. The EFL have also confirmed how Blues P&S calculation will be looked at for this year.
Just prior to announcing their interim results on Thursday, Birmingham Sports Holdings also announced a rights issue in an attempt to raise HK$297.7million. The purpose of the rights issue is to reduce the frightening levels of borrowing within the company and to provide more working capital to keep the company going.
