By David Owen
March 8 – Leicester City, the Midlands club enduring what by their recent standards is an undistinguished season in the lower reaches of the Premier League, have reported a near tripling of pre-tax losses for the year to end-May 2022.
The loss of £92.5 million on turnover of £214.6 million compared with a loss of £33.1 million on turnover of £226.2 million the previous year. Approximately half of the year-on-year deterioration was attributable to a sharp reduction on profit from player sales. This tumbled from £43.9 million for the year to end-May 2021 to just £9.2 million for the latest period.
Perhaps unsurprisingly in the circumstances, newly-published accounts for the Thai-owned club disclose that the Foxes have entered into a short-term discounting facility with Macquarie Bank to “bring forward the proceeds” from the August 2022 sale of centreback Wesley Fofana to Chelsea. Specialist website Transfermarkt assesses the fee for the Marseille-born defender’s transfer at €80.4 million.
While group staff costs dipped in the latest period to £182 million from £192.1 million in 2020-21, the club also had to absorb an increase in interest payable, which climbed more than £7 million from the previous period to £19.3 million.
Notes to the accounts put year-end bank loans at £80.6 million. The vast majority of this is, again, with Macquarie Bank, secured on Premier League receivables and bearing interest at 6.63%. The club noted that accrued interest of £566,000 was unpaid at the latest year-end; this was repayable in instalments up to July 2026.
Since the year-end, however, the club’s balance-sheet has been transformed thanks to a Christmas present from the owner: on 31 December 2022, King Power International converted £194 million of its loan facilities and associated interest into equity.
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