Bolton's appoint new Auditors and also a club Head of Finance.

Tweet from Iles just now -

Wanderers appoint Shaun McHugh as new head of finance and Cowgill Holloway as their new auditors.

Is that the guy who did a similar job at Crystal Palace?

boltonbonce wrote:Is that the guy who did a similar job at Crystal Palace?

Yes - more details to follow in post below.

BOLTON Wanderers have appointed Shaun McHugh as their new head of finance.

The chartered accountant, arrives at Macron Stadium having held a number of directorial positions, including a stint at Crystal Palace between 2001 and 2006. He has also worked in Formula One with the BAR racing team and was a board member of the Amateur Boxing Association.

He said: “I am delighted to be joining Bolton Wanderers Football Club at such a pivotal point in the club’s history.

"As a football fan, I’m particularly proud to be joining one of the original twelve clubs who founded the first football league anywhere in the world in 1888.

“There are tremendous opportunities for the football, hotel and events businesses to grow and I am looking forward to playing my part in this.”

Wanderers Chairman Ken Anderson said: “Shaun has a great background in finance and has strong experience of working in football.

“His experience and detailed knowledge of the industry will stand us in good stead as we look to continue rebuilding Bolton Wanderers Football Club.”

Wanderers have also appointed a new auditor, who will oversee the filing of their accounts.

Bolton-based Cowgill Holloway, as its auditors, whose headquarters are located close to the Macron Stadium on Chorley New Road, will become auditors for the Burnden Leisure Group.

“We are delighted to have appointed Cowgill Holloway as our auditors. They are a local company with a strong pedigree and we look forward to an excellent working relationship,” said Anderson.

Stuart Stead, Partner and Head of Audit and Advisory at Cowgill Holloway said: “Everyone across the firm is very pleased to have been appointed auditors – as a firm with its roots in Bolton, there’s a great deal of pride across the firm, many of our team are lifelong Bolton Wanderers fans. We are very much looking forward to working with the club moving forwards. “

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all sounds very promising and positive, the head of finance chap sounds like he will know his stuff

WANDERERS have taken the first measures towards having their transfer embargo lifted by the Football League.

The appointment of a new head of finance, Shaun McHugh, and new auditors in the form of Bolton-based firm Cowgill-Holloway, were confirmed by the club yesterday.

Wanderers had been looking for a financial director since the departure of John Pelling to Stoke City at the start of the year and had severed ties with long-standing auditors Deloitte.

The paperwork is due at Companies House by the end of the month but is it understood the club plans to file “as quickly as possible” and will not meet the deadline.

Once the accounts are in, Wanderers hope to present a fitting business plan to the EFL which will enable the embargo – which has stood in place since December 2015 – to be lifted.

Chartered accountant McHugh was in charge of finances at Selhurst Park between 2001-2006 and has also been involved with the BAR Formula One racing team and the Amateur Boxing Association.

In his online CV McHugh claims to have saved the Eagles approximately £700,000 per annum through introducing internal controls to reduce overspending and more than £5million in external financing.

He said: “There are tremendous opportunities for the football, hotel and events businesses to grow and I am looking forward to playing my part in this.”

Ken Anderson added: “Shaun has a great background in finance and has strong experience of working in football.

“His experience and detailed knowledge of the industry will stand us in good stead as we look to continue rebuilding Bolton Wanderers Football Club.”

Cowgill-Holloway, based on Chorley New Road for more than 30 years, were referred to by Anderson as a firm with a “strong pedigree.”

Both McHugh, a former Crystal Palace director of finance, and the new auditors will be rushed quickly into action to file the accounts for 2015/16.

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Norpig wrote:all sounds very promising and positive, the head of finance chap sounds like he will know his stuff

To me it's a bit of a concern as it sounds desperate. Why "sever ties" with Deloitte's when they were in the middle of doing the job? Weren't they prepared to give Ken the numbers he wanted to hear? I suspect it's something to do with the auditors being unwilling to verify the accounts as being fair and accurate last time out.
Plus they've already stated the next return is going to be late.
From the outside this looks like a desperate bid to play for time and muddy the waters rather than a positive step towards clearing the decks and getting the embargo lifted. I hope I'm mistaken.

No offence to Cowgills but they used to do my accounts and they're not the largest firm in the world.

In fact, they're probably not even the biggest accountancy firm in Bolton.

I'm not suggesting that there may be any impropriety afoot, but I would imagine that a contract like this is worth a lot of money for them and that may bring with it a certain degree of latitude when it comes to "flexibility" regarding signing off on stuff.

I may be completely wrong of course but.......well.......you know......

Bread2.0 wrote:No offence to Cowgills but they used to do my accounts and they're not the largest firm in the world.

In fact, they're probably not even the biggest accountancy firm in Bolton.

I'm not suggesting that there may be any impropriety afoot, but I would imagine that a contract like this is worth a lot of money for them and that may bring with it a certain degree of latitude when it comes to "flexibility" regarding signing off on stuff.

I may be completely wrong of course but.......well.......you know......

They'll certainly be cheaper than Deloitte's but I'd have thought that Deloitte's would have the better chance to get everything done promptly as they are already so far down the road with this ergo if it's being done for budgetary reasons it may be a false economy. Or a red herring.

Not sure if "well we had to change the auditors" qualifies as a reasonable excuse for not getting the returns done on time - again.

i know nothing about financial matters so i bow to Lusty and Breaders greater knowledge on these things. I didn't think there could be ulterior motives for changing auditors to be honest.

Anderson stated some time back that we were going to change from Deloitte's because of the cost - so this announcement has been expected and is not being done for any underhanded reasons as alluded to above.

It certainly is not unreasonable to expect a new Head of Finance and a new auditor company to want more than just four weeks to comprehend the state of the accounts at any business that has been undergoing what we have in the last couple of financial years.

It wouldn't even surprise me if the accounts are delayed past May, as they would then know what division we would be playing in next season and thus be able to comment with a greater certainty about the financial security of the club as a going concern.

I don't think the late submission of the accounts will be of a major concern to the Football League (or Companies House) as they clearly have been closely involved in the financial position of the club since Anderson's involvement and we have not suffered any points or financial penalty's from them and still have been able to bring in players in both the last two windows despite the embargo.

Bread2.0 wrote:No offence to Cowgills but they used to do my accounts and they're not the largest firm in the world.

In fact, they're probably not even the biggest accountancy firm in Bolton.

I'm not suggesting that there may be any impropriety afoot, but I would imagine that a contract like this is worth a lot of money for them and that may bring with it a certain degree of latitude when it comes to "flexibility" regarding signing off on stuff.

I may be completely wrong of course but.......well.......you know......

Mr Pinto is on the board. It's all linked.

Sluffy wrote:Anderson stated some time back that we were going to change from Deloitte's because of the cost - so this announcement has been expected and is not being done for any underhanded reasons as alluded to above.

It certainly is not unreasonable to expect a new Head of Finance and a new auditor company to want more than just four weeks to comprehend the state of the accounts at any business that has been undergoing what we have in the last couple of financial years.

It wouldn't even surprise me if the accounts are delayed past May, as they would then know what division we would be playing in next season and thus be able to comment with a greater certainty about the financial security of the club as a going concern.

I don't think the late submission of the accounts will be of a major concern to the Football League (or Companies House) as they clearly have been closely involved in the financial position of the club since Anderson's involvement and we have not suffered any points or financial penalty's from them and still have been able to bring in players in both the last two windows despite the embargo.

Delaying accounts by two years is unheard of.

We're just speculating but the timing of the change does look unusual. That said Sluffy makes a fair point about the move potentially being a tactic to delay submission until we know what division we'll be playing in - especially as I suspect KA has bet the farm on us going up. 

I think the most astounding thing about the whole affair is just how patient HMRC, the creditors and the FA have been with the club. Maybe that's simply a matter of them recognising that if the club goes under, nobody gets paid.

Kane57 wrote:

Sluffy wrote:Anderson stated some time back that we were going to change from Deloitte's because of the cost - so this announcement has been expected and is not being done for any underhanded reasons as alluded to above.

It certainly is not unreasonable to expect a new Head of Finance and a new auditor company to want more than just four weeks to comprehend the state of the accounts at any business that has been undergoing what we have in the last couple of financial years.

It wouldn't even surprise me if the accounts are delayed past May, as they would then know what division we would be playing in next season and thus be able to comment with a greater certainty about the financial security of the club as a going concern.

I don't think the late submission of the accounts will be of a major concern to the Football League (or Companies House) as they clearly have been closely involved in the financial position of the club since Anderson's involvement and we have not suffered any points or financial penalty's from them and still have been able to bring in players in both the last two windows despite the embargo.

Delaying accounts by two years is unheard of.

What are you on about?

We've only just submitted the previous years accounts and suffered no penalty from the Football League or Companies House (maybe a nominal late filing charge perhaps?), so why should these accounts be seen to be any different particularly that we are submitting them almost a year quicker than the last ones!

wanderlust wrote:We're just speculating but the timing of the change does look unusual. That said Sluffy makes a fair point about the move potentially being a tactic to delay submission until we know what division we'll be playing in - especially as I suspect KA has bet the farm on us going up. 

I think the most astounding thing about the whole affair is just how patient HMRC, the creditors and the FA have been with the club. Maybe that's simply a matter of them recognising that if the club goes under, nobody gets paid.

There is nothing about the change that is staged or 'looks unusual'.

Our last Head of Finance left at Christmas, so it seems three months to advertise, interview, appoint and the service of notice from his last employer seems to be more or less spot on to me.

Similarly to put out to tender for a new auditor, evaluate and award the contract would again be about the time one would expect to take place in my experience.

As for how patient the creditors have been - we don't even know if HMRC has been an outstanding creditor, I would imagine Anderson had them as priority to pay first - to keep them away from the club as much as they can.

It looks to me that the remaining creditors have been told what the score is and all bar Heathcote's accepted that initially and even they ended up having their contract renegotiated on more favourable terms to the club.

The only creditor of note would be BluMarble and I'm sure they would take whatever action would be most favourable to it - and I don't think trying to put the club into Administration would be good for them, or their investment.