Town have announced a loss of £9.776 million in the year to June 2013, down from the previous year’s figure of £15.964 million. The club’s debt rose from £72.481 million to £82.437 million.

The figures were revealed to shareholders at this evening’s PLC AGM in a sheet outlining the financial highlights for the year 2012/13, which can be viewed on the club site here. The PLC is made up of the pre-takeover shareholders and owns 12.5 per cent of the club with Marcus Evans owning the rest.

Wage costs were down from £17.95 million in 2011/12 to £15 million, while the club lost £1.96 million on net player trading.

Gate receipts were down to £5.084 million from £5.363 million in the previous year, while commercial income also dropped slightly from £4.688 million to £4.153 million. Overall, turnover was down to £13.843 million from £15.037 million.

The increase in debt is made up of £7.929 million in loans from other areas of the Marcus Evans Group and £2.203 million interest.

However, interest is now no longer charged on the club’s debt, in part due to worldwide debt cap rules relating to inter-group loans, with only so much debt permitted between companies within the same group. In addition, interest charged on debt counts towards a club’s overall loss under the Financial Fair Play rules.

Joint-managing director Ian Milne told TWTD that fans shouldn’t be overly concerned by the debt, despite its size: “The debt is all contained within the group, there’s no third party debt there.

“Mr Evans continues contributing and will continue to contribute, so we shouldn’t have fear from that.

“What Jonathan and I are trying to do is cash generate to reduce the level of contribution he has to make.

“When we get to that, then fine, but no Championship club is covering its costs and some debts are much, much higher.

“And more concerningly, some of those Championship clubs’ debts are third party bank debts, whereas ours is totally within the Marcus Evans Group, so we shouldn’t be concerned with that. I’m not concerned with that.”

He says the debt is unlikely to come down until the club is in the Premier League: “I think that’s probably correct unless we can generate more income and get more people through the gate. Our gate isn’t bad, it’s going up with the consistent performances we’re having.”

The Financial Fair Play rules mean Evans is no longer able to inject cash at the same levels as in the past and as a result the loss for 2013/14 will be lower.

“We have to come in line with that and that’s what we’re preparing for at the moment,” Milne added.

“It’s going to be interesting to see those clubs who are going to have difficulty meeting those aims and what happens there.

“They risk a transfer ban if they don’t succeed in getting to the Premier League and I know that there a number of clubs who will make sure that’s enforced.”

Milne was joined at the AGM by manager Mick McCarthy and PLC chairman Roger Finbow and several members of the PLC board.

Academy sponsorship manager Simon Milton spoke about the Academy Association and showed the new recruitment video (below).

Milne and McCarthy took a handful of questions from the floor at an understated meeting with the Town manager given strong backing by the majority of shareholders.

The attendance was lower than in previous years with the weather and resultant transport problems presumably having had an effect.

Photo: Action Images

TimmyH added 13:01 - Dec 6 Clubs like Chelsea etc. have debts on players wages of £80M so that put's things into perspective...BUT that's pretty bad for a smaller club like us.
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warktheline added 13:59 - Dec 6 The debt stems from the sheep shank era.ME has made error of judgement on management issues,but he deserves credit for the capture of MM.Fans should be happy to have such an owner.I for one was surprised he managed to attract a high profile manager after the RK and PJ shambles.
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Seasider added 16:49 - Dec 6 Thank you Phil for keeping us shareholders informed who did not go yesterday.I normally attend but could not be bothered as have to travel fair way.Glad you have provided resume' of the clubs finances as this wasn't sent out with PLC bumf.
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