LFC announces financial results
Liverpool FC today announced that solid progress continued to be made as it filed its financial results for the 10-month period from 1 August 2011 to 31 May 2012.
The club changed its financial year end to align with the football season and remains focused on improving revenues while managing its historic and current cost base and day-to-day operations.
Despite not playing in Europe in that period, turnover increased during the equivalent 12-month period due to an increase in domestic fixtures.
Managing Director Ian Ayre said: "These financial results are now up to 18 months old and show that we have made some good progress towards putting the financial health of the club on a firmer footing. Although we didn't play in a European competition, we had great success in both domestic competitions which gave a boost to our revenue. In addition, areas like our commercial partnerships continued to grow, despite a global recession."
Earlier this year, Deloitte's Football Money League table yet again placed LFC in the top 10 European football clubs based on revenue. Liverpool was the only club in the top 10 that was not in the Champions League competition for that season, demonstrating the strength and reach of Liverpool as a global brand that remains highly attractive to fans and commercial partners alike.
Ayre added: "For the equivalent 12 month period, the club's unaudited turnover has increased by £5million and we were delighted to further strengthen our portfolio of commercial partnerships as we continued to focus on growing successfully at home and internationally.
"During the period we signed seven new players including Jose Enrique and Sebastian Coates, extended five player contracts including Steven Gerrard and signed eight players from scholar to professional contracts, demonstrating the club's commitment to youth talent. In addition three players were loaned out and eight players transferred out. As part of our transition, we also implemented a new transfer strategy, ensuring we bring in talented players on sensible contracts that provide value to the club."
Free video: Ian Ayre discusses the financial results
During the period, the club's net debt increased by £21.8million to £87.2million due to a number of factors including player instalment payments and investment in some new players as part of LFC's desire to improve football performance. Since the period end, FSG injected £46.8million into the club via a non-interest bearing intercompany loan, demonstrating further commitment and support by the Reds' owners. Credit facilities were also refinanced with three major banks, providing £120million of facilities for three years.
Exceptional payments of just over £9.5million were made - these related to a number of costs including stadium project costs, general restructuring costs and costs relating to some senior employees that left the club.
Ian Ayre commented: "A lot has happened since the reporting period. Some new players joined the club during the summer and January transfer window which has added depth and strength to the team on the pitch.
"Off the pitch, we forged new partnerships with Warrior, Garuda and Chevrolet - the revenue from these contracts will show in the 2013-14 financial accounts; however, these partnerships continue to demonstrate the strength and reach of the LFC brand.
"We have further strengthened the team with new appointments including Mike Cox, director of merchandising, Billy Hogan, chief commercial officer, and Matthew Baxter, chief media officer - all three bring a depth and wealth of relevant global business experience which will further fuel our desire to grow internationally in key markets.
"We continue to invest in our digital platforms and more recently established 10 new international Twitter feeds in local languages to further engage our global fan base. LFC is now the most active football club on Twitter throughout the world."
Ayre added: "These financial results show that we are continuing to improve revenues while managing our cost base and day-to-day operations more effectively and are testament to the hard work and dedication of the board, senior management team and staff right across the club. Any business transition takes time and dedication and we will all remain focused on building a solid and sustainable operating business model which we can build on and further strengthen what we started with Fenway Sports Group over two years ago."