New beginnings - 25% Truth, 80% Bollocks

[Bogus Dave]

Didn’t the CEO essentially come out and say that we’re losing money because of debt repayment to clem? In the interview he did with the adver. Rather than it all being interest free loans that clem wasn’t going to call in unless he sold the club (as I’m sure has been said before)

“ It is a perfectly fair point [that Swindon have larger attendances than most League Two clubs], however Clem [Morfuni] inherited seven million pounds worth of debt when he bought the football club.

To work through that debt and become sustainable, we have to keep working the way that we are.”

[Bennett]

I haven't seen that quote, I just watched the "welcome our new CEO" video and it didn't seem to be mentioned there. Have there been other interviews with Mr Hall?

This is a point I've tried to make in this thread - whilst we ought to be thankful that Clem has stabilised the club, the debt has not been eradicated - It's been shifted to an interest free loan from Clem and he is a creditor to the club. So if Clem does sell, he'll presumably value the club at greater than £6m to recoup his funding OR it'll turn into a longer term debenture.

I am absolutely not saying that's shady or untoward or uncommon. Just highlighting this fact

https://www.swindontownfc.co.uk/siteassets/2023-24/advisory-board-minutes/advisory-board-meeting-minutes-oct-2023.pdf
Note: Chairman Clem Morfuni has to-date injected c£6m into Swindon Town, to help stabilise
the club finances. The accounts will reflect that this is owed back to him, however no interest will be due, and there is no timeframe for repayment.

Adver writeup https://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/sport/23820797.swindon-town-ceo-says-financial-sustainability-key/
yootoobs interview https://www.swindontownfc.co.uk/news/2023/september/watch-anthony-hall-speaks-for-the-first-time-as-ceo-of-swindon-town/

[Bob1978]

I'd imagine that the (almost seemingly never ending) upcoming court cases are likely to put off almost every investor looking to get involved in football. To be fair to him Clem did get on board, even with knowing how much of a mess the club was in behind the scenes.

As Batch said, even with 5k season tickets and gates regularly between 8.5-10k we're losing money each year. The state of the ground can't be helping, I'd imagine a fair chuck of money has to go into it just to make it 'healthy and safe'.

Personally I can't see a lot changing until the court cases are done, and a lot of and low hanging fruit debt has gone.

Agreed. I’m sure that’s Clems thinking too. He’s invested in good legals to clean up the shit which is a good thing.

[Bob1978]

Agreed. I’m sure that’s Clems thinking too. He’s invested in good legals to clean up the shit which is a good thing.

Put it this way, he’ll have a plan and won’t sell the club because we lost to Gillingham on Tuesday.

[Mooneyraker]

Agreed. I’m sure that’s Clems thinking too. He’s invested in good legals to clean up the shit which is a good thing.

Who’s that? Standing’s lawyer? Who now part owns the club?

[ThreeDrawsMentality]

Think one of the most telling things I found from the recent interviews was when Clem was going through the legal process to acquire the club from Power, he believed the debt position to only be high six figures, rather than the inevitable £6+ million. He may have had more capital to take us forward if that had been the case, but the final debt position probably put that to bed. Only way it will get cleared I feel is if a new owner/consortium cleared it out right in the purchase. Otherwise that will continue to hover over us.

[Bennett]

STFC in that latest accounts (filed feb 23 for period up to June 22) suggests their tangible assets are valued at ~£3m.
Add in half a CG and that goes up...but I can't see anyone buying the club (ie the value of assets and potential income) inclusive of the £6m debt Clem's got against it.
My guess is that value would need to be £10m+, which I don't think is a sensible investment for a league 2 club

Companies House Link https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/00053100/filing-history


edit - am definitely not a financial expert, happy to be told the assets don't mean what I think they mean

[ChalkyWhiteIsGod]

I’m pretty sure the club will be a much better investment prospect when Clem leaves to when Clem took over. But there are 72 clubs in the EFL …. how many good investors are there knocking around?

Quite a few in this league......which is why we're struggling to compete.

[ChalkyWhiteIsGod]

As Batch said, even with 5k season tickets and gates regularly between 8.5-10k we're losing money each year. The state of the ground can't be helping, I'd imagine a fair chuck of money has to go into it just to make it 'healthy and safe'.

For the life of me I cannot work out how this is the case.

[ChalkyWhiteIsGod]

Didn’t the CEO essentially come out and say that we’re losing money because of debt repayment to clem? In the interview he did with the adver. Rather than it all being interest free loans that clem wasn’t going to call in unless he sold the club (as I’m sure has been said before)

“ It is a perfectly fair point [that Swindon have larger attendances than most League Two clubs], however Clem [Morfuni] inherited seven million pounds worth of debt when he bought the football club.

To work through that debt and become sustainable, we have to keep working the way that we are.”

If we're running at a low budget because we're paying Clem off to become truly debt free, that at least makes sense. I'd argue he may be better off getting less back now and getting us out of the basement and selling up to get it back though.

[ChalkyWhiteIsGod]

Think one of the most telling things I found from the recent interviews was when Clem was going through the legal process to acquire the club from Power, he believed the debt position to only be high six figures, rather than the inevitable £6+ million. He may have had more capital to take us forward if that had been the case, but the final debt position probably put that to bed. Only way it will get cleared I feel is if a new owner/consortium cleared it out right in the purchase. Otherwise that will continue to hover over us.

Didn't he say he was willing to pay well in to the millions and ended up getting it for a few hundred thousand?

Negates that pretty quickly.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Audrey]

Didn't he say he was willing to pay well in to the millions and ended up getting it for a few hundred thousand?

Negates that pretty quickly.

Quite. When all this took off Clem said he’d offered more than the mythical Able offer of £7.5m. He ended up paying £212,500. So Clem must have had access to £7m or thereabouts. Just think of the shit we’d be in if Clem HAD paid £7m and then found a similar amount of debt that needed clearing.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Audrey]

What’s the chances that once the Power/Standing case is settled Standing may invest properly in the club.

[ThreeDrawsMentality]

Didn't he say he was willing to pay well in to the millions and ended up getting it for a few hundred thousand?

Negates that pretty quickly.

Ah yes he did! I forgot about that. His bid supposedly being better than Able's £7mn offer.

[ChalkyWhiteIsGod]

Quite. When all this took off Clem said he’d offered more than the mythical Able offer of £7.5m. He ended up paying £212,500. So Clem must have had access to £7m or thereabouts. Just think of the shit we’d be in if Clem HAD paid £7m and then found a similar amount of debt that needed clearing.

So really, the £7m owed to Clem he should have been willing to write off and increase the budget so we're making use of the great gates and high ticket prices we have.

Unless of course he was just always full of shit.