2008 - 2009 Accounts Now Available

[Mally]

Highlights:

Turnover £1,917,496

Loss for the year of £825,498

Including a pension fund defecit total loss £887,870

Net Liabilities of £4,918,238 of which £3,361,059 due to WPL (only £80,000 more than previous year).

Additional loans of £100,000 unspecified from where though.

Payments to directors (get this for a Conference club) £97,250 which includes a termination of contract amount of £21,000

Kelvin Thomas was paid (or was owed) £60,000 during the financial year. I can't remember when he took over from Merry so not sure if this is for a whole year.
Edit - Just checked it was October 2008 so the above figure was for 9 months so £80,000 has to be assumed for a full year.

Edit 2 - As KT is also a director he may also have received some of the £97,250 mentioned above.

[boris]

Thomas took over from Merry on 2 Oct 08 (my birthday, so easy to remember!).

[Kernow Yellow]

Turnover £1,917,496

Loss for the year of £825,498

Including a pension fund defecit total loss £887,870

Does that mean we actually made a (small) operating profit last year?

And can someone please explain in layman's terms what a pension fund defecit loss total means in the context of Oxford United? Are there some employees (past or present) who are guaranteed certain levels of pension which we would make a projected loss when paying based on the value of the pension fund as at the relevant financial year end? Or have I misunderstood how these things work?

[Mally]

Sorry the payments to Kelvin Thomas were already included in the directors payments so the total taken out by Merry, SMith and Thomas was £97,250. That sounds a bit better.

Kernow - No far from it - The pension adjustment took the loss up from £825,498 TO £887,870 - i.e. £62,372

[Mally]

Turnover £1,917,496

Loss for the year of £825,498

Including a pension fund defecit total loss £887,870

Does that mean we actually made a (small) operating profit last year?

And can someone please explain in layman's terms what a pension fund defecit loss total means in the context of Oxford United? Are there some employees (past or present) who are guaranteed certain levels of pension which we would make a projected loss when paying based on the value of the pension fund as at the relevant financial year end? Or have I misunderstood how these things work?

Apparently this is connected to a Football League defined benefit scheme and it looks like the club owes this fund £119,053 based on a revised calculation after the year end. Echoes of Maxwell?

[Dartford Ox]

Thomas took over from Merry on 2 Oct 08 (my birthday, so easy to remember!).

You are remarkably literate for one so young

[Mally]

Thomas took over from Merry on 2 Oct 08 (my birthday, so easy to remember!).

You are remarkably literate for one so young

I think he means 1908.

[Snake]

Total debt = £5.2m (including £440k owed in taxes and social security)

[Swissbloke]

Total debt = £5.2m

Hmmm. That's not a good thing.

[ty cobb]

Ok I'll start with the stupid questions

1. To whom do we owe just over £1.5 million if not WPL?
2. To whom did we pay £21,000 to - Nick Merry? Why did we pay him £21,000, how much was he likely to have been on a year?
3. At what point do OxVox become uncomfortable with the level of debt and start asking some tricky questions about short term, let alone medium term plans, for the future of this club?
4. How does this level of debt compare with other clubs in the conference - how about league 2 or 1?
5. Has the position got better or worse since these accounts were published?
6. What was the debt of the club when WPL took over?

[Snake]

Total debt = £5.2m

Hmmm. That's not a good thing.

I was thinking about that very fact tonight while waiting for someone to score a goal.

When FK said goodbye to #oufc we were £2m in debt (to FK) and we sort of owned our Stadium - but hey, just look at who’s currently running away with the Engage Super League. I’ll bet he’s as pleased as punch.

Gotta look on the bright side and all that..

[Isaac]

We are effectively as close to owning the stadium now as we were when uncle firoz was in charge, I don't think it's particularly clever to pretend otherwise (or else, how did wpl manage to buy just the club?).

The £3m of debt accumulation since then is a massive issue though isn't it. I can't see anyway out of that beyond either administration or some miraculous sugar daddy. There is no way the club will be able to pay back £5m, probably ever. From what Kelvin T has said we've managed to break even this season and we've had good crowds and relative success. I dread to think what'll happen next year if we're midtable or below (in any division, I don't think midtable league 2 football will have the mass oxford public banging the door down anymore than midtable conference football would).

[Swissbloke]

What's the debt to Her Majesties Customs?

[slappy]

Well you've all picked up the negatives.
How about ...
With effect from April 2008 WPL has not charged interest on the loan. Interest accrued between April and June 2008 of £29K has been written back this year.


The long term (over 5 years) operating lease commitment (ie stadium rent and service charge) has actually gone down by £27K.

Now if only someone would host the accounts on a website ...

[GodalmingYellow]

The £21k compensation is Jim Smith not Nick Merry. Nick Merry resigned post the accounting year end, so if he had such a payment it will appear in the next accounts.

The biggest problem figures in the accounts is the £450k social security and other taxes.

I'll post more up later when I'm back in my office.