[Archived] Venkys London Ltd Accounts

[chaddyrovers]

No probs,

I see you still have me blocked from PM's

I will unblock it if the PM is Rovers related

[Mercer]

Wrong word maybe. Qualified accountant

I'm Chartered - good enough for you ?

[chaddyrovers]

I'm Chartered - good enough for you ?

I didnt know that.

Good..

Any more thoughts on it?

[yoda]

I didnt know that.

Good..

Any more thoughts on it?

I will unblock it if the PM is Rovers related

See, if I was unblocked you would know this (MM being a proper accountant) and other points that you get wrong sometimes

[ABBEY]

Keep posting please Mercerman.

Just ignore the others

shut up

[Iceman]

Can anyone tell me the total debt now? When I open the 40 page doc it's just blank (probably an iPad thing). I'm admittedly pretty hopeless with accounts. £126m shares issued? Is that it?

Yeh its an ipad thing, it happens

[Iceman]

We are a special club

[pk1875]

This is what your average non forum using Rovers supporter will read today from the L Telegraph,

BLACKBURN Rovers’ parent company Venky’s London Limited (VLL) reduced losses by more than £30m in its annual accounts, in which the owners have once again re-iterated their commitment to the club.

VLL, which owns a 99.99 percent stake in Rovers, recorded losses of £2.8m in the financial year ending March 2016, compared with £35.1m in the previous year.

That was helped by a £17.3m profit on player sales with the big-money departures of Jordan Rhodes and Rudy Gestede helping improve figures. Rovers lost £5.4m loss on player sales in the previous year.

Loans from the Venky’s to Rovers now total £121m and the owner’s say they remain committed to the football club and their aim of bringing Premier League football back to Ewood Park.

Venky’s also admit that VLL will need ‘significant funding’ in the year ahead but confirm that their parent company, Venkateshwara Hatcheries Pvt. Ltd, will be able to provide financial assistance.

During the last accounting year, £23.4 million was also converted from reserves to further share capital which now stands at £123m.

Rovers reduced the wage-bill to £28.2m from £30.9m 12 months earlier, however, figures showed that the wage to turnover ratio was 129 per cent, meaning for every £1 received, almost £1.30 was spent on wages.

That was up slightly from 128 per cent the previous year.

Turnover fell from £24m to £20.8m, not helped by a fall in the average attendance from 14,930 to 14,129, as Rovers finished last season 15th in the Championship.

But the accounts confirm that the club were compliant with Financial Fair Play (FFP).

“The focus of the company has again been for the football club to obtain promotion back to the Premier League, and become compliant with FFP (Financial Fair Play),” said directors Anuradha Desai, Venkatesh Rao, Balaji Rao and Jitendra Desai in the accounts.

“Further significant changes were made to the playing squad to reduce ongoing costs, whilst at the same time reducing the average age of the playing squad, and increasing its potential re-sale value.

“The reduction in turnover was due to a further reduction in the share of parachute payment received by the club.

“Operating expenditure for the year also reduced, wages and salaries reduced, and other operating costs significantly reduced.

“Compliance with Championship Football Fair Play (FFP) regulations will challenge all football clubs as they try to manage finances, such that they operate within income levels.

“The focus for Blackburn Rovers has to be on striving for promotion back to the Premier League, but also working to increase revenue streams back up to a level that will allow them to achieve this.

In their forecasts for 2017, the accounts state: “The group will require significant funding in addition to the current facilities available to the group.”

However, they add that the directors have received confirmation from their parent company, Venkateshwara Hatcheries Pvt. Ltd, that “it has sufficient funds and is willing to provide such additional funding as may be required to fund the group.”

That is regardless of whether the bank facility, provided by the State Bank of India, which is due for renewal in March 2017, is approved.

While Venky’s state the short term financial performance of Rovers has been “volatile”, the owners believe the value of their investment has increased since the previous financial year.

They added: “The company is committed to support the subsidiary (Rovers) going forward and is confident of its growth and continued improved performance.”

The accounts also include a note that after March 31 2016, the date of which the accounts run to, Rovers received £10.875m in transfer fees through the sale of central defenders Shane Duffy to Brighton and Grant Hanley to Newcastle United.

[Mike Graham]

"BLACKBURN Rovers’ parent company Venky’s London Limited (VLL) reduced losses by more than £30m in its annual accounts, in which the owners have once again re-iterated their commitment to the club.

VLL, which owns a 99.99 percent stake in Rovers, recorded losses of £2.8m in the financial year ending March 2016, compared with £35.1m in the previous year."

What the above para's says to me is that despite major player sales we still made a loss in the financial year, but not as much as before, and our overall debt has increased.

Sounds like more 'spin' from Venky Towers.

[Dunnfc]

What a load of rubbish. Operational losses haven't dropped we still lost 23 million prior to player trading.

How a local paper can publish that is beyond me

[AJW]

How have wages gone up ?? When every half decent players we have , we sell and replace with dross ?

[Dunnfc]

How have wages gone up ?? When every half decent players we have , we sell and replace with dross ?

No down but has turnover is down 3/4 million and it's given as s ration I think it's gone up 0.05

[Athlete]

What a load of rubbish. Operational losses haven't dropped we still lost 23 million prior to player trading.

How a local paper can publish that is beyond me

Local paper is a joke rover's wise

[ABBEY]

Venkygraph

[Mattyblue]

Problem you have is that jouros at the LT are either simply used to quoting Coyle's pressers in full or publishing gems like; 'CLICK HERE: 50 worst takeaways in Blackburn'

So, don't expect any number crunching to have gone on.

[koi]

Disgusting piece by the Telegraph that. Zero journalism, probably submitted by Cheston. We can firmly write the Telegraph off as a paper for he fans.

[Mike E]

You would think that an aspiring journo somewhere would have some balls.

[onlyonejackwalker]

Disastrous. Hugely concerning.

Turnover dropped by over 3 million.

Even with massive player sales at this level we still lost a significant amount of money.

For every £1 we receive we spend £1.30 on player wages. Righty oh, sounds like a good business model.

Whether this week, next week, or next year this cannot go on. I know some big earners have gone but if turnover falls again by 4% or so we will still be burning dough.

The Venkys business master class in full swing. To clarify how thick both the Trust and the Venkys have been we were above mid-table in the PL turning over about 50 million wuth about 54 million costs. Losing circa 3 million per year. Phil Jones was sold for 16 million, or 5 years debt. Meanwhile those 3 million losses were under the old tv deal. The new deal doubled and mid-table in the PL, even if salaries had increased to reflect the new deal, would have seen us (The Trust / Venkys) very profitable each year.

The Trust sold too fast and too cheap. The Venkys were ptentially onto a good thing if they had played their cards right.

I'm amazed they have kept plodding this long. They must be ill with it. I am not one of those believing they have made any money out of buying the club. In business Friday payday comes round quick and the bills are continuously endless. Imagine paying your staff £1.30 for every £1.00 that comes in! The Venkys are simply keeping people employed and as it says in the paper still think we may squirm back to the PL.

Others are saying we might be in bother soon. The article says funding in place going forward. It's never dull.

[onlyonejackwalker]

I guess next years figures will be offset by Hanley and Duff. Very misleading in terms of evaluating the current performance of this enterprise.

[arbitro]

Disgusting piece by the Telegraph that. Zero journalism, probably submitted by Cheston. We can firmly write the Telegraph off as a paper for he fans.

Absolutely correct. The people who read the LT and take it in are the kind of people I sometimes chat to in Darwen who are sympathetic and almost grateful to the Indians for keep putting money in and keeping the club going. When will they realise that we are on the road to oblivion and the debt will just grow. There is absolutely no future for us and the Indians 'statement' is an insult to our collective intelligence. I deplore the whole charade that they have created and the real source of my anger is how they have utterly disrespected the legacy of Jack Walker, something they promised not to do. Liars.

[Lancaster Rover]

The game is up when you're relying on cashing in the family jewels to cover day to day expenditure.

[JHRover]

To me it sounds very much a case of 'business as usual'.

For those pinning their hopes on the Bank of India refusing further funding in March I think you're being optimistic. The loan facility from the Bank is up for renewal every March and every March for the last 5 years it has been renewed by Venkys. They say they are confident that it will be renewed again so it sounds to me like that will be renewed no problem. Of course the Bank might get concerned about lending substantial amounts of cash to a loss making club with no assets, but we've been saying that for years and they keep on renewing it. Lord only knows what kind of arrangement Venkys have with the Bank for them to keep on pouring funds into the club but on it goes and they expect it to continue.

The Telegraph have made out as though the owners have made some grand statement to supporters reaffirming their commitment to the club and determination to lead it forward into a bright and successful future. That isn't what has happened. The directors of Venkys London Ltd have made a statement setting out their views on the company's performance as part of the filing of their annual accounts. If they refused to commit to the club and pledge funding to make up the shortfall then there would presumably be problems getting the accounts signed off.

Those who are horrified by the wages to turnover ratio or the fact that we're losing money hand over fist in this league - I'm afraid that's the grim reality of life in the Championship in 2017. It might be crazy and dangerous long term, but pretty much every club in this league is in a dire financial state of having wages far too high for their turnover and multi-million pound losses.

Even the so-called well run clubs, like Brighton with their 20,000+ crowds in an affluent part of the country, have posted losses of £29 million recently as they chase the Premier League. Burnley were posting losses of £8 million+ a year a few seasons back. There's no such thing as a break even model in this league. Blackpool did it and it took them to League Two, it appears we're trying it by selling the family silver yet have still fallen short whilst probably condemning the club to relegation.

If we just want to survive in this League, never mind challenge for promotion, then substantial losses are a given. It doesn't matter that much in the grand scheme whether we're getting 10,000 a week or 15,000 a week turning up, unless we sell £15million worth of players every season and don't reinvest then we'll lose millions every year. I'm not saying I like it but that's the reality and we've either to do the same or sink. Anyone who owns this club or aspires to own this club needs to face reality. If you plan on running a Championship club on the cheap without the ability or interest to invest millions of pounds a year with no guarantee of a return then you're in the wrong business.

Of course things could be much healthier from a commercial, corporate and ticketing point of view. It's ironic that the owners refer to improving revenue streams and yet this area of the club has been neglected and destroyed over the last 6 years. Even now we chose to overlook the need for a Commercial Director with extensive experience in the football industry, so I don't accept that serious efforts are being made to boost incomes. I think they are paying lip service to the whole thing and merely saying what they need to say and offering the required commitments to get the accounts signed off.

I don't think we're any nearer to them departing or any further away.

[Mike Graham]

The LT employs 'reporters' not 'journalists'.

They report the news, they do not investigate nor proactively find stories.

This is about newspapers cutting costs as advertising revenue drops, digital takes over and people no longer (in general) buy newspapers any more (I have on-line news and have not bought a 'paper' for over 2 years).

The LEP has dropped from 90,000 sold copies to about 7,000 per day. The LT sells about 4,000 and it is dropping.

Newspapers cannot afford journalists any more. My Brother was 'Journalist of the Year' with lots of prestige.....it does not promise him a job and he has to scrap around reporting from Fleetwood and Blackpool lucky to get £50 for a game after expenses. He does a Sunday shift for a national newspaper and is paid less now than he was almost 20 years ago, if he does not take the money they have told him they will get a trainee from college on apprenticeship wages.

I expect the LT reporters to be on minimum wage or just over.

Don't blame the reporter blame the system and the dumbing down of news. It is a bit like blaming Coyle and co when the root problem is Venkys.

[den]

What a load of rubbish. Operational losses haven't dropped we still lost 23 million prior to player trading.

How a local paper can publish that is beyond me

Without the sales of Gestede and Rhodes, we would have lost £38m.

Brutal figures.

[tomphil]

Disgraceful propaganda by the LT which is at best naive and at worst a blatant attempt at spin and frankly an insult to thousands of concerned supporters who see things in black and white.

Too many dingles running that rag now ?? Bloody looks like it with that two fingers to Rovers fans headline. This mess Venkys have created will go on for years and years now unless something big changes. The only reason for any attempt at increasing squad value is so it can be pulled apart every couple of years again to keep the whole farce going and service the debt.

Clubs finished with them here imo your looking at the drop this is or next season surely followed by a decade in the 3rd/4th tiers. I;d love them to make me eat my words but all we have is the usual spin with now seemingly the local comic firmly on board.

Oh and i'll say it again, funny how those gigantic wages never really fall much !!!