Saints close Liebherr era with £40m profit

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By David Owen

March 29 – Premier League Southampton have posted a hefty profit for the year to end-June 2017, its last under the control of Katharina Liebherr. In August, Liebherr’s vehicle, St Mary’s Football Group, sold out to Lander Sports (UK), bringing the club under the control of Jisheng Gao, a Chinese property magnate.

The club, which has developed a reputation over recent seasons for successful – and profitable – player development but which now finds itself in the thick of a relegation scrap, reported a pre-tax profit of £41.8 million on turnover of £178.3 million

With operating profit even in today’s exceptionally benign trading conditions for Premier League clubs, reaching only £1.8 million, player disposals were again a key factor, yielding a profit of more than £42 million. Striker  Graziano Pellè and defender José Fonte were among those who left in the 2016-17 period.

The accounts disclose a £580,000 compensation payment for loss of office which was largely responsible for boosting directors’ remuneration from £1.05 million to £1.7 million. Two directors, G.Rogers and Liebherr herself, are said to have resigned during the year. The club also parted company, after just under a year, with manager Claude Puel, who had taken them to the League Cup final and eighth place in the league.

The club repaid a £15 million loan facility at the year-end. At this time, shareholder loans of £20 million, with an annual interest rate of 5%, were still outstanding. However, the accounts state that these have since been converted to equity. In all, a net debt position of £24.9 million was turned around to net cash of £17 million over the course of the year.

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