That was the point of the thread I started on this - I was hoping that Red Rain would give his views and interpretation of the information, even though much of it must be guesswork. That said, there are others with accounting/financial acumen on here, and DannyWilson'sLoveChild and blivy make interesting comments on the other thread. I suppose the accounts posted to Y/E 31.05.2017 are in many respects the closing chapter of the Patrick Cryne era. Acknowledging my limited understanding of such matters, they appear to be a very good demonstration of how PC turned the club around. The snapshot of the club's financial position which the figures represent must have been a far rosier picture for our new investors than how the accounts would have looked in the aftermath of Championship relegation. Quite where we would have been headed had Patrick been able to continue and the new investors not have been attracted is a moot, and now academic point. But he achieved his aim of handing the club on in good financial shape to those he judged to have it's best interests at heart, and a new chapter now begins. Given that the purchasing and holding vehicle for the club is incorporated in Hong Kong, I wonder whether we will see the same information for Barnsley Football Club 2002 Limited next year? I guess it depends how the new owners choose to conduct the club's affairs once the dust settles.
I couldn't sleep, no need to set off for the game so I decided to look at the accounts while watching the cricket. Short synopsis is, and none of this should be particularly surprising, pretty good, no debt and £10m on balance sheet. The balance sheet of the club has improved considerably over the year, cash up by £5.2m and debtors up £6m (assumption these are transfer fees agreed but not yet paid). At first sight this is offset to some extent by the increase in debt due in the next year. In the last set of accounts we owed £4m, in this set we have debt of £10.5m due in the next year. This seeming increase in debt is because in the prior set of accounts there was a loan amount of £7.5m owing in more than 1 year this has now moved in to current debt. We have about £1.3m in trade creditors (assuming some of these are agreed transfer fees but not paid out. A large portion of the £4m debt last year was accruals and deferred income, there is no further detail but I would presume a proportion of this is in relation to the loan amount of £7.5m but can't be sure. When you put all this together our balance sheet looks much more robust a position of £3.3m positive compared to a negative position of £9.6m. What is clear is that the post event disclosure shows that the loan amount showing in the books of £6.3m was repaid via share issue. In essence if this was, and I think it would have been PC's loan to the club, this was repaid by cash coming in to the club in exchange for newly issued shares. All things being equal the balance sheet will have improved from the £3.3m to around £10m now. There has also been player purchases of £1.9m but this will also bolster the balance sheet as intangible fixed assets.
That is the bit that is interesting because post year end Roberts was sold and this figure of £1.9m is net spend. If the rumoured £3m is anything like the truth our transfer outlay was nearly £5m. Players signed for a fee were, Mcgeehan, Thiam, Potts, Pinnock, Lindsay, Pearson, Mallan and McCarthy. It seems to suggest that the fees paid were substantially more than I had thought at the time.
Thanks to everyone for picking out the salient points in the balance sheet which gives a very positive view of our financial position for 2017, but more importantly, a massive thank you to the late great Patrick Cryne, his wife and son, for their genuine and enduring love and resolute care of our treasured Football Club. Without them, it's unlikely that we would have been in the position we now find ourselves in.