*Shakes head* Everton again.

[Karl_b]

Anyone fear for them?

[AngryOfTuebrook]

34 minutes ago, Anubis said:

Hang on, isn’t a straight loan even worse for Everton, because they can’t convert it to equity shares, but instead have to pay it back with interest?

 

 

 

 

Borrowing to pay off debt.  What could possibly go wrong?

 

[AngryOfTuebrook]

26 minutes ago, Anubis said:

 

 

 

 

777 would be in keeping with some Everton traditions.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afrikaner_Weerstandsbeweging 

[johnsusername]

From this outsider's perspective, they seem an absolute mess. 

[Reckoner]

17 minutes ago, johnsusername said:

From this outsider's perspective, they seem an absolute mess. 

Succinct and accurate 

[Anubis]

The Athletic article in full.

 

 

Everton’s hopes of improving their financial situation have received a huge hit after MSP Sports Capital withdrew from talks about taking a minority stake in the club.
The New York-based investment group signed an exclusivity agreement with the Premier League side in May and the plan was to invest up to £150million in convertible debt that would become a stake of approximately 25 per cent in the 145-year-old club.
In a complicated deal, £100million of that investment was meant for Everton Stadium Development Company, the subsidiary club owner Farhad Moshiri set up in 2017 to oversee the construction of Everton’s new ground at Bramley-Moore Dock, with the rest going to the club.
But that exclusivity period is now over and the deal is dead, with the stumbling block being opposition from one of Everton’s existing lenders, Rights and Media Funding Limited.
Everton, currently bottom of the Premier League after losing their first two games of the season without scoring a goal, have a loan facility with the Cheshire-based firm that the club has extended to £200million this year. That debt is secured via four charges on club assets and they have negative pledge clauses which mean the holder can demand repayment of its debt before the borrower takes on any further borrowing.
With Rights and Media Funding Limited reluctant to give up its protection against possible default, MSP’s plan became unworkable. The lender’s main concern, however, was that MSP was not putting enough money into the club in return for its equity and Everton simply need more cash.
That may well be true but the club will now not be getting any from MSP. But the U.S. group is proceeding with the £100million loan to the stadium company, although this is now just a straightforward loan and not convertible debt.
This should enable Moshiri to repay the £40million he borrowed from English businessman Andy Bell in May which was always intended to act as a bridging loan for the larger MSP investment. Bell, the founder of share-dealing platform AJ Bell, lent the money to the stadium company via his family investment firm Blythe Capital.
What is not clear, however, is if the MSP loan will now unlock the rest of the funding required to complete the stadium.
The original plan was that the remaining £260million would come via a five-year construction loan sourced by global banks JP Morgan and MUFG, but that was premised on MSP taking an equity stake in the business.
The club’s supporters, however, will have more pressing concerns. In the previous two seasons, they overcame closely-fought relegation battles and they have endured a difficult start to the 23-24 campaign — having lost their opening two matches. The club have also only added four new players this summer and the only one who cost a fee, 19-year-old striker Youssef Chermiti, is not fit enough, according to manager Sean Dyche.
With MSP out of the picture in terms of additional investment, Moshiri is trying to find alternatives, including resuming talks with Miami-based investment firm 777 Partners. Whether those talks go any further than the ones that took place earlier this year remains to be seen.
Everton’s problems, though, go beyond a failure to find fresh investment and a slow start to the season. They have lost more than £400million between 2018 and 2022 and are currently being investigated by an independent panel for possible breaches of the league’s spending rules. A ruling is expected later this year.
Moshiri, a 68-year-old British-Iranian, bought the club in 2016, having previously owned a minority stake in Arsenal with his business partner Alisher Usmanov. Moshiri, who is based in Monaco, has poured at least £750million into Everton, with very little to show for his generosity apart from a half-built stadium by the banks of the Mersey.
His free-spending approach to football just about made sense for as long as he had access to Usmanov’s financial support but that was dramatically cut off last year when the Uzbek-born oligarch was added to the UK’s list of sanctioned individuals in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. That forced Everton to cancel several lucrative sponsorships with Usmanov-owned companies and opened another hole in the stadium-financing plan as Usmanov was going to provide a naming-rights partner.
Everton, a founding member of the Football League, have competed in English football’s top flight for a record 120 seasons. And, despite a 28-year trophy drought, they remain one of England’s most successful teams in terms of silverware.
Set up by sports agent Jeff Moorad and investor Jahm Najafi, MSP describes itself as a private equity firm that invests in teams, leagues and sports-related businesses. It has stakes in Spanish football team Alcorcon, German side Augsburg and Portugal’s Estoril, as well as shares in F1’s McLaren and the NBA’s Phoenix Suns.
Everton, MSP and Moshiri were all asked for comment but declined to do so.

[Fugitive]

They are really really fucked. They have agreed a £15m fee for Che Adams but are struggling with the structure of the deal because Southampton want £5m upfront.

 

They can’t afford it.

 

[halewood pete]

[Megadrive Man]

1 hour ago, Karl_b said:

Anyone fear for them?

I really do.

[halewood pete]

2 hours ago, Anubis said:

Yeah, forget the wholesale destruction of property and infrastructure, the countless civilians killed, and the decimation of almost an entire generation of the population - the real question is how do Everton suffer?

 

 

Bluewolf

Player Valuation: £20m

• 8 minutes ago

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gixerk6 said:

Russia attacking Ukraine has really screwed us over. I’m sure Usmanov would have probably wangled something to sort out this stadium funding

How come evey time there's a war it ducks us over

 

[Lee909]

2 hours ago, Anubis said:

It’s all very shady.

 

 

Drico

Player Valuation: £40m

• 10 minutes ago

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The Athletic reports that the deal fell through due to opposition by one lender, Rights and Media Funding Ltd.

According to a previous article in the Guardian:

The club has also received about £150m in loans from an opaque lender called Rights & Media Funding Limited (RMFL), a Cheshire-based company its lawyers said last year competed “with some of the largest names in sports financing”, although it does not possess a single employee, a website or a phone number.

As the Guardian reported in November, RMFL also appears to have borrowed much of its money from a company based in the offshore secrecy jurisdiction of the Bahamas, which started lending to RMFL just six months after the offshore firm was established and does not reveal its source of funds.

 

Rights and Media?

Are they selling off shares in future TV revenue?

They must be really fucked if they are

[Barrington Womble]

Interesting stuff. I've thought for a while they were fucked, because MSP raised the money very quickly. I'm a little surprised though the deal is supposedly over because of existing lenders, surely that was cleared before the deal was struck? Feels more likely to me that MSP can't take an equity stake in a company that is potentially owned by a sanctioned individual, as there have been plenty of press reports saying usmanov was more than a sponsor. A loan to the stadium company and not the football club probably bypasses that. 

 

I wonder too what security msp have for this 100m.loan and what interest is payable on it? The stadium company has no source of income unless the football team plays there, but this article clearly says this doesn't provide enough money to finish the deal. 

[johnsusername]

Why would you invest (or loan money to) a sports business which has the double threat hanging over them of a possible points deduction and a relegation fight? 

 

Everton come across as a failed gambler trying desperately to cover his debts with other people's money. It only ends one way. 

[Anubis]

34 minutes ago, Lee909 said:

 

Rights and Media?

Are they selling off shares in future TV revenue?

They must be really fucked if they are

Yes. Ticket sales and TV revenue.

[manwiththestick]

36 minutes ago, Lee909 said:

 

Rights and Media?

Are they selling off shares in future TV revenue?

They must be really fucked if they are

Didn't they do that once before years back before they became Moshiri's billionaires, or at least try to?

[AngryOfTuebrook]

50 minutes ago, johnsusername said:

Everton come across as a failed gambler trying desperately to cover his debts with other people's money. It only ends one way. 

 

[Redder Lurtz]

Everton are Morrie from Goodfellas asking for his money. 

[Pete]

All seems very messy and they look totally and utterly fucked off & on the field. 

 

[Fugitive]

I’d fucking love it if they folded. I don’t give a fuck if friends or family members support them or any of that bollocks. That are absolute cunts and the misery it would bring to them gives me a hard on.

 

They all have 16 other second clubs anyway.

[AngryOfTuebrook]

[Barrington Womble]

This is more about the echo than Everton I suppose. I've just read the echo version of this story, that without any shame, they pretty much just report the athletic have a story and we're repeating it almost word for word. Shocking journalism. 

 

https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/msp-sports-capital-everton-breaking-27580970?int_source=amp_continue_reading&int_medium=amp&int_campaign=continue_reading_button#amp-readmore-target

[kemskem]

11 hours ago, Megadrive Man said:

I really do.

Barely got a wink.

[Pete]

Just out of interest.  At what point do other clubs that may have issues surrounding them & affecting their daily business stop what they are doing and think "What would Everton do?

[Harry Squatter]

That £30m they got for naming rights when the stadium wasn't even built was one of the dodigest deals ever seen. It also just happened to be the exact amount and landed just in time for them to avoid ffp breaches. 

[coachpotato]

This is all just a series of coincidental financial misunderstandings, it’s an impossibility that one of the most successful and storied clubs in the English game, a founder club no less, with a list of firsts as long as Stretch Armstrong’s arms and with the most state-of-the-art stadium in the northern hemisphere, on the banks of the Royal Blue Mersey no less, could ever be allowed to sink into the Championship depths. It just won’t happen.

 

There’ll very likely be a saviour in white flowing robes, on a camel, come riding over Everton Brow to save the day any time now (no, not Jesus).

 

Then the power shift will truly be on.