QPR take out £15M (or was it 150 million) loan for a new stadium despite relegation

[Rangers77]

Guardian has the story..... Key para: "However, with QPR approximately £90m in debt due to the significant loans paid in by Fernandes and his partners during the 2011-12 financial year, totalling £55m, and the Mittal family, who lent £27m, supporters may be concerned at the shift in approach". Note, however, that the bank loan has been personally guaranteed by the shareholders.....

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2013/apr/16/qpr-bank-loan-tony-fernandes

[Norths]

Not looking good.

Reckon a few on the board will bail out at the earliest opportunity.

[HammersmithR]

Doesn't sound good at all. Why have the board done this? Is this linked to the financial regulations we will have to adopt in the Championship.

Has anyone asked Tony or Amit on Twitter?

The club need to make some kind of statement about this.

We don't want the club going down the route of that bleeding ABC loan which was a noose around our necks for years.

[vblockranger]

Standby for positive spin PR tweet from TF in the next 24 hours to combat the negative news. Probably a tweet about the training ground or academy etc...or maybe about us changing the badge? :-)

[Rangers77]

£15M isn't a large chunk of change for these guys. If Boswinga alone sees out his three year contract then he'll be paid £10M.... The bank loan's nothing like the ABC loan because its from a 'respectable' bank and is guaranteed by the shareholders who have a business relationship with Barclays; that means they, not the club, assumedly carry the debt.

[vblockranger]

" Accounts for 2011-12 show that QPR's wage bill doubled to £56m and that the club made losses of £23m during that period, which does not include January's splurge."

I would be heading to the bank for a loan too rather than put anymore of my own money into the sink hole that is QPR at the moment.

[3touch]

Doesn't sound good at all. Why have the board done this? Is this linked to the financial regulations we will have to adopt in the Championship.

Has anyone asked Tony or Amit on Twitter?

The club need to make some kind of statement about this.

We don't want the club going down the route of that bleeding ABC loan which was a noose around our necks for years.

I had been asking Fernandes, Beard and Ian Taylor but getting stonewalled. Maybe this will make them give a straight answer. Why did they tell us about a week before this loan was taken out that we had no external debt? They would have known full well this loan was about to go ahead as it would have already been in the pipeline.

[FurtiveFox]

I'm not going to read too much into this. They want the club to eventually be able to stand on it's feet. They have agreed to guarantee the loan. There will be tax advantages to doing it this way. The money itself could be ringfenced for a specific purpose, say the new training ground. All sorts of reasons. I'm sure if you looked at most clubs there is a mix of personal and bank loans. If the owners were looking to bail they wouldn't be giving personal guarantees. If they bail then chances are the club will default which would make them personally liable in addition to the significant personal loans they have provided. They can afford to see this project through. I'm sure relegation is a blow but I'd be surprised if that alone made them want to give up. These guys are winners who have invested a lot of time and money.

[bonheurjh]

sigh....

[Felt]

£15M isn't a large chunk of change for these guys. If Boswinga alone sees out his three year contract then he'll be paid £10M.... The bank loan's nothing like the ABC loan because its from a 'respectable' bank and is guaranteed by the shareholders who have a business relationship with Barclays; that means they, not the club, assumedly carry the debt.

Isn't it guaranteed by the club's assets, including the stadium? At least that's what I think the article's suggesting.

[3touch]

Isn't it guaranteed by the club's assets, including the stadium? At least that's what I think the article's suggesting.

This is important for 2 reasons:

1) it is secured against the stadium like a mortgage

2) we were told about a month ago there was no external debt to answer any worries. A week later we had external debt. Still don't worry?

[CroydonCaptainJack]

I would expect an explanation in the next few days if it is innocent. If we didn't hear anything I might start to worry.
I would guess it is tied up with the new training ground but secured on the existing assets i.e. the ground/players.

[Kirill]

Wow, club owners have not been totally honest with the fans, this has never happened before in the history of football, stop the press, we have a scoop here. We think we are special and they are special ...uhuh. They should have been more prudent with player purchases last year and more urgent with getting rid of Hughes. Mistakes were made within a space of few months that will have repercussions for many many many lean years to come. Bounce right back up ... yeah right.

[CroydonCaptainJack]

Wow, club owners have not been totally honest with the fans, this has never happened before in the history of football, stop the press, we have a scoop here. We think we are special and they are special ...uhuh. They should have been more prudent with player purchases last year and more urgent with getting rid of Hughes. Mistakes were made within a space of few months that will have repercussions for many many many lean years to come. Bounce right back up ... yeah right.

Your usual cheerful self Kirill?

[Magic]

Starting a relationship with a bank with a view to Warren Farm/New ground?