true faith - Newcastle United Fanzine (TF121)

Page 122

A lot has been said and written about Newcastle United’s profits during the tenure of Mike Ashley, who via St James Holdings Limited, purchased 41.6% of Newcastle United PLC’s issued shares on 23rd May 2007, and bought up the remaining shares by 6th June 2007.

CHRIS BETTS Follow @bettsy1892

MONEY SHOTS – A SHORT HISTORY OF MIKE ASHLEY AND HIS FINANCIAL OPERATIONS AT NEWCASTLE UNITED A lot has been said and written about Newcastle United’s profits during the tenure of Mike Ashley, who via St James Holdings Limited, purchased 41.6% of Newcastle United PLC’s issued shares on 23rd May 2007, and bought up the remaining shares by 6th June 2007. Whilst the then Chairman, Chris Mort was responsible for the Chairman’s statement which formed part of the ‘year ending 30th June 2007’ company accounts it is clear that given the purchase wasn’t completed until June that

the financial performance for the year ending 30th June 2007 was a reflection of the previous regime’s running of the business and that we can actually judge Mike Ashley and his Board’s running of the business, starting from the year ending 30th June 2008. Newcastle United PLC’s accounts had recorded, between 2001 and 2007 cumulative losses of £69.5m (broken down below) in the 7 years prior to Mike Ashley, whilst in the 7 years since, Newcastle United Limited have recorded cumulative profits of £10.0m.

However, whilst the profitability of a business is important information, a profit figure includes items which are purely book keeping entries and are not real transactions, such as depreciation charges, amortisation and impairments, therefore, a more accurate assessment of Newcastle United’s financial performance may be found by studying it’s income, particularly when Newcastle United is expected to operate within it’s own means, following the “No more capital outlay” message released in

May 2010. (See attached link click here ) In order to do this, we need to get an understanding of the structure of Newcastle United, the type of subsidiary companies that Mike Ashley purchased and what areas of income they were responsible for. The company Mike Ashley purchased in 2007 was Newcastle United PLC, a public limited company whose shares were publically traded on the London stock exchange and what came with the purchase of Newcastle

11 months Newcastle United PLC Profits/ 2001 2002 2003 2004 (Losses)2001-07 Retained Profit/ £13,314,000 £7,539,000 £172,000 £215,000 (Loss) for the year Newcastle Utd Limited Profits/ 2008 2009 2010 2011 (Losses) 20082014 Retained Profit/ (Loss) for the year £20,316,000 £15,197,000 £17,091,000 £32,619,000 www.true-faith.co.uk

CONTENTS

2005 £4,054,000

2006

2007

Cumulative 7 Year Loss

£12,033,000 £32,892,000 £69,445,000

2012

2013

2014

Cumulative 7 Year Profit

£1,365,000

£9,892,000

£18,718,000

£9,990,000 tf 122


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