dougie247 Posted November 13, 2015 Report Share Posted November 13, 2015 (edited) Any thoughts on the announcement from the club It all seems like good news.. I just get worried when i see Re-Structuring and Debt together.. Would be keen to see more detail of the deal Friday 13th November 2015 at 13:06 Partick Thistle Football Club can today announce that, following new shareholder investment and agreement with Bank of Scotland, the club is now debt free. Intrinsic to this refinancing is the creation of the Partick Thistle Football Club Trust, which will provide supporters, through fans appointed representatives on the trusts board, an opportunity to have a greater say in the running of the club. In 2008, the club’s debt totalled more than £1.5 million, which has been reducing year on year due to ongoing sound financial management and some tough decisions around costs. The 2014/15 season saw the club continue to operate a break even budget strategy, however it remained a challenging period from a financial perspective. Despite on field improvements, leading ultimately to an eighth place finish in the Scottish Premiership, the club saw home attendances drop by more than 500 on average, although numbers have stabilised in the current season. As part of the club’s ongoing financial planning process, the board of directors discussed options around funding with the bank and it became apparent that, should suitable investment be found, there would be an opportunity to restructure the club’s debt. With investment secured, that restructuring deal is now in place, meaning the club is debt free. Partick Thistle chairman, David Beattie, said: “This is a historic day for Partick Thistle Football Club. To put not too fine a point on it, it represents the biggest off the park success story since Save the Jags. “This deal is the result of a huge amount of work behind the scenes at Firhill and feels like the ultimate reward for a sustained period of careful financial planning. “I am grateful to the board of directors and all at the club, including our fans, for their support to get us here and to Bank of Scotland for helping us realise our vision. “Before this season started, we explained that one of our objectives going forward was to bring stability to the club. That’s what this deal means for us. What it doesn’t mean is that we will become complacent, rather that we will use this as a base to build from.” Further details on the Trust and the new investors will follow in due course. Edited November 13, 2015 by dougie247 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madcapmilkdrinker Posted November 13, 2015 Report Share Posted November 13, 2015 Hopefully first step to fan ownership. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dick Dastardly Posted November 13, 2015 Report Share Posted November 13, 2015 I can't see how this can be bad news. No debt to the bank (although I suspect that has been taken up as debt to shareholders - Nobody would give a large sum of money without wanting something back) and increased supporter influence. It may not directly change what happens on the park, but the future of PTFC is in a much better state following this news. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lady-isobel-barnett Posted November 13, 2015 Report Share Posted November 13, 2015 Have to wait for the nuts and bolts, particularly in reference to PTFC Trust, to make a valued judgement. Welcome news of course. Are we to assume that if "restructuring the debt" and "debt free" in this instance is the same thing that the Club debts are being completely underwritten by the "new shareholder investment*? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Bunny Posted November 13, 2015 Report Share Posted November 13, 2015 Sounds good. I'll wait until further details are forthcoming before giving three cheers but it sounds promising. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lady-isobel-barnett Posted November 13, 2015 Report Share Posted November 13, 2015 From ET Intrinsic to this refinancing is the creation of the Partick Thistle Football Club Trust, which will provide supporters, through fans appointed representatives on the trusts board, an opportunity to have a greater say in the running of the club. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lambies Lost Doo Posted November 13, 2015 Report Share Posted November 13, 2015 Fan ownership to me is all a bit "meh". It would be like a social club committee as people get all emotional, throw their toys out the pram and "jack it in". As long as we have smart people in charge making the right decisions then I'm happy. And at this moment in time I definitely do think we have the right board and I am grateful for what they do. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Stevenson Posted November 13, 2015 Report Share Posted November 13, 2015 Great news on the face of it but in reality impossible to assess without full details which will hopefully not only be forthcoming, but be palatable. Time and disclosure will tell. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ian_mac Posted November 13, 2015 Report Share Posted November 13, 2015 Obviously great news about us being debt free. Beattie's tenure as chairman actually looks pretty formidable when you consider a promotion, 3 seasons in the top league (hopefully many more), the creation of the youth academy, and now today's news. You can't really argue with that record. The most interesting part of the statement for me though, is this new creation of a supporters trust. Given that the club have been, somewhat cumbersomely, trying to resurrect a supporters federation, you have to wonder if that has now been ditched and replaced with this new trust? I will admit that I haven't heard anything since a meeting which I missed about a year ago, but the progress had been painstakingly slow and when it was decided that my preferred format of 1 member 1 vote had been thrown out I didn't take any further part. But surely a supporters trust should be instigated by the supporters, not the club. And what of that other trust, the jags trust? What does this development mean to them? Is there any reason for them to exist anymore? What have they been up to recently? How many active members do they currently have? Who is currently on the board of the JT? It would be easier to find out what's going in North Korea to be quite honest. Can anyone from the JT give us an insight? I'm sure the JT will argue that they are still important because of the shares they have but will this new investment mean that their shareholding has been diluted? Would really love to hear someone from the JT's view on this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThickAsThieves Posted November 13, 2015 Report Share Posted November 13, 2015 "Further details on the Trust and the new investors will follow in due course." Hopefully fairly soon so we can see the details behind this - but on the face of it, it's great news. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paddy Thistle Posted November 13, 2015 Report Share Posted November 13, 2015 If I remember it correctly David Beattie said a few years ago the biggest problem we faced was getting rid of the bank debt as the deal arranged was heavily weighted in the banks favour and it wasn't an easy deal to get out of quickly I'm sure he said there were heavy penalty clauses attached to early repayment Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fawlty Towers Posted November 13, 2015 Report Share Posted November 13, 2015 As others have said this certainly appears to be good news and it will be interesting to see who has invested as well as details of the trust. I had been on the companies house website the other day to see if the accounts had been filed and there was an update on the 3rd of Nov but I did not appreciate the obvious significance of it: https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/SC005417/filing-history Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stillresigned Posted November 13, 2015 Report Share Posted November 13, 2015 Like many I'll delay any final judgement until I have more details. However, on the face of it it does appear to be extremely positive news. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paulo Posted November 13, 2015 Report Share Posted November 13, 2015 I'm just going to declare myself happy with this. Nice to hear. (I reserve the right to change my opinion slightly in the future) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
German Jag Posted November 13, 2015 Report Share Posted November 13, 2015 "Further details on the Trust and the new investors will follow in due course." Hopefully fairly soon so we can see the details behind this - but on the face of it, it's great news. This. Hopefully there is no dragging on for all eternity like the launch of TAG fiasco. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yoda-jag Posted November 13, 2015 Report Share Posted November 13, 2015 on face of it, potential to be good positive news for the club ..... but before today, half the ground was owned by the club, the other half by propco, while our debt to the bank was a hefty six figure sum, with rumours of a further £400k shortfall between income and expenditure for last season ..... so, while it is welcoming that the big bad bank debt has been removed, the high interest monthly payments to service that bank debt has been stopped, and the rumoured 400k loss of last season has been "wiped out", the devil may well be in the detail as to what that debt has been converted to, or moved into the hands of. so until more detailed information comes out on how this deal is structured in the clubs favour (or not), and where that debt has gone or in what form it has been converted to, i will continue to get splinters in my big fat rear end over this news. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JAGSMAN1968 Posted November 13, 2015 Report Share Posted November 13, 2015 From the BBC website re today's news: "Thistle, who were promoted to the Scottish Premiership in 2014, had been reducing their debt over the past seven years." Funny that,could have sworn it was 2013! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Willjag Posted November 13, 2015 Members Report Share Posted November 13, 2015 on face of it, potential to be good positive news for the club ..... but before today, half the ground was owned by the club, the other half by propco, while our debt to the bank was a hefty six figure sum, with rumours of a further £400k shortfall between income and expenditure for last season ..... so, while it is welcoming that the big bad bank debt has been removed, the high interest monthly payments to service that bank debt has been stopped, and the rumoured 400k loss of last season has been "wiped out", the devil may well be in the detail as to what that debt has been converted to, or moved into the hands of. so until more detailed information comes out on how this deal is structured in the clubs favour (or not), and where that debt has gone or in what form it has been converted to, i will continue to get splinters in my big fat rear end over this news. I was going to post something akin to this myself Yoda. I know the banks have been doing deals with Clubs in recent times to get the debt off their books (Killie, Dundee United IIRC?), but with the debt rumoured to have climbed back up to around the 7 figure mark again recently, that would mean we have had a really substantial investment to wipe out the bank's involvement with the Club. My first question would be, have we sold the other 50% of the ground or has someone bought the 50% that's been on sale for the past few years? Once the detail is out and about and we can all have a look at the pro's and cons, I'll be happier then. On the face of it though, it does sound like good news. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crazy davie Posted November 13, 2015 Report Share Posted November 13, 2015 (edited) This is great news. We will be able to kick on from here and I would hope that we can improve the squad in the January transfer window. I don’t know if any of you are aware, but a great way to save money on quality players is to use the tax-saving device known as EBT. This will allow the club to pay higher wages to players because tax is not payable under the EBT scheme. I believe it has operated with great success at other clubs Edited November 13, 2015 by crazy davie 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark Passenger Posted November 13, 2015 Report Share Posted November 13, 2015 My money's on the Weirs given how quickly this has happened since their PR representative was appointed to the board. We have a lot to be grateful to them for if it's the case. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lady-isobel-barnett Posted November 13, 2015 Report Share Posted November 13, 2015 My money's on the Weirs given how quickly this has happened since their PR representative was appointed to the board. We have a lot to be grateful to them for if it's the case. That would perhaps go some way to explain the emphasis on the new trust. I think if I was ever in the situation to make an altruistic investment I'd want to see it "secured" in such a manner. Unfortunately Willjag's scenario is also plausible. Propco could've been sold on at a profit from the "Thistle minded" to less Jags orientated investors with our security, using the general meaning of the word, dependent on a fan driven trust. Probably better tho' to await clarification and more detail. No harm done in putting the champagne on ice. Tho' I wouldn't go popping the cork just yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yoda-jag Posted November 13, 2015 Report Share Posted November 13, 2015 I was going to post something akin to this myself Yoda. I know the banks have been doing deals with Clubs in recent times to get the debt off their books (Killie, Dundee United IIRC?), but with the debt rumoured to have climbed back up to around the 7 figure mark again recently, that would mean we have had a really substantial investment to wipe out the bank's involvement with the Club. My first question would be, have we sold the other 50% of the ground or has someone bought the 50% that's been on sale for the past few years? Once the detail is out and about and we can all have a look at the pro's and cons, I'll be happier then. On the face of it though, it does sound like good news. of same mind we are will ..... you've raised the scenarios that was the thinking behind my post, while we are in one form debt free now, at what cost to the club is it? if it is as dp suggests, and it's the weirs ploughing in the money, then we can pop the corks on the champagne that libby has bought us all, and induct the weirs into our hall of fame with our eternal thanks ..... but if it's not such a huge (and nothing in return) gesture from the weirs or another individual (or group of people), then the specifics of the deal and who it is with to have erased the bank debt, but potentially transfer it either to another party or have stripped the cupboard bare in our assets, then it will be the next hotly debated topic on this forum, other social media and in the pubs and stands of firhill. sooner the club let the thistle support know these specifics, be better it will Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
douglas clark Posted November 13, 2015 Report Share Posted November 13, 2015 The folk that go unmentioned here are Kingsford Capital. Altruistically, they invested IIRC £100k in the club with no realistic expectation of a return. Instead they have had near global publicity through Kingsley. That was, as they say, an internet phenomenon. If it has been good for them, even as a talking point with mega rich investors, they may want to build on that. Or maybe they've just given ptfc a few shares in Kingsford Capital ;-) Just a thought. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
javeajag Posted November 14, 2015 Report Share Posted November 14, 2015 This is clearly good news....though as usual we have the dark hints of conspiracy lurking.... Beattie has done a great job in his time so far so well done to him The lifting of the debt burden will ease monthly cash flow and puts us on a sound financial footing Just in time for January Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lindau Posted November 14, 2015 Report Share Posted November 14, 2015 Similar to most on here, I had two thoughts on hearing this yesterday. Either the Weirs have invested in the club or we have sold off most of the ground. Will be absolutely delighted if it's scenario one and horrified if it's scenario two. No doubt we will find out in due course, however I have to say that while our rivals in the South side of the city lurch from one financial crisis to another and appear to be on the verge, it gives me a nice warm glow to be able to taunt the Rangers supporters I know, about our seemingly healthy financial situation, after getting years of abuse about our wee diddy club. Ah the last 3/4 years have been magnificent! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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