Financials for 2016-2017 (via Swiss Ramble)

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] - the latest accounts available unfortunately, but it gives an insight into the scale of the adjustments that had to be made following relegation and the sale of assets, exceptional items and other income streams that almost balanced the books for us whilst cutting wages.
A lot can be read into them and they are very open to interpretation (depending on the colour of your spectacles  ) but they do provide some context about where we stand as a club. Could really do with 2017/18 to get a better picture, but interesting nonetheless.

Thanks Wander, information relating to Bolton from [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] is as follows:

Only 3 clubs in League One have a cash balance above £1m, namely Sheffield United £2.5m, Charlton Athletic £2.1m and Shrewsbury Town £1.1m.

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The highest financial debt by far in League One was £65m at Charlton Athletic, mainly owed to owner Roland Duchâtelet’s company, followed by Coventry City £37m, mainly owed to hedge fund owners SISU Capital, then Bolton Wanderers £22m, Millwall £20m and Southend United £18m.

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Similarly, player purchases are very low in League One, though there is still a hierarchy within the division, so Sheffield United’s £3.1m was far ahead (relatively speaking) of their rivals: Oxford United £1.0m, Millwall £0.9m, Peterborough United £0.7m and MK Dons £0.5m.

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Player amortisation, the annual charge to write-down transfer fees over the length of players’ contracts, is unsurprisingly very low in League One with the highest amounts less than £2m: Sheffield United £2.0m, Charlton Athletic £1.9m, then a fair gap to Peterborough £0.5m.

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Clubs in League One have to comply with the Salary Cost Management Protocol, so the wages to turnover ratios are normally better (lower) than those in the Championship. Nevertheless, still some clubs above 100%: Charlton 146%, Scunthorpe 145%, Fleetwood Town 109% & Southend 104%.

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3 of the 4 highest League One wage bills were at the promoted clubs, though these were inflated by promotion bonuses. Highest was Bolton £13.8m (including £1.1m for hotel), followed by Charlton £11.1m, Sheffield United £10.0m & Millwall £9.4m, then large gap to Scunthorpe £6.0m.

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Highest commercial income in League One generated by Walsall £4.2m, partly thanks to long-term deals with Marstons (stadium naming rights) and HomeServe (shirt sponsorship), followed by Bolton Wanderers £3.4m and Chesterfield £2.9m.

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In 2016/17 League One clubs received £677k EFL central distribution and £645k Premier League solidarity payment as TV money. Also payments for each time shown live (home game £30k, away £10k). Millwall highest with £2.8m, due to FA Cup run to quarter-finals and play-off games.

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Highest attendances were at 2 Yorkshire clubs: Sheffield United 22,000 & Bradford City 18,000 (unfortunately #bcafc published no revenue details). #SUFC crowds would have placed them in the top 10 of the Championship. Followed by Bolton 15,000, Charlton 11,000 & MK Dons 10,000.

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At this level, match day revenue can be a critical differentiator with Sheffield United leading the way with £7.9m, followed by Millwall £5.2m, Charlton Athletic £3.2m and Bolton Wanderers £3.2m.

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The 3 clubs promoted from League One in 2016/17 had the highest revenue: Bolton Wanderers £14.7m (though this includes £6.5m from the Whites Hotel), Sheffield United £11.4m and Millwall £10.0m. Next highest were Charlton £7.6m, Oxford £7.0m, Walsall £6.6m and MK Dons £6.6m.

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Profit on player sales was below £3m for all but 2 clubs in League One. The exceptions were relegated from Championship: Charlton £16.2m (Lookman to Everton, Gudmundsson and Pope to Burnley, Cousins to QPR) and Bolton Wanderers £5.6m (Holding to Arsenal, Clough to Forest).

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Excluding exceptional items, only 9 League One clubs were profitable. It is striking that the 3 largest losses were at the 3 promoted clubs (Bolton £9.5m, Millwall £5.8m & Sheffield United £5.7m). In fact, 5 largest losses came from 5 of clubs in top 6 (exception Bradford City).

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Worth noting impact of exceptional items, e.g. Bolton boosted by £9.4m (waiver of loan £5.2m & profit on sale of car park £4.2m), Fleetwood by loan write-off £1.3m & Shrewsbury sale of land £1.0m. Scunthorpe hit by stadium impairment £1.3m, Charlton by staff restructuring £0.8m.

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11 of the 24 clubs in League One made money, though the amounts are very small – the highest were Swindon Town and Rochdale £1.4m. The largest reported losses were Millwall £5.8m, Sheffield United £5.7m and Scunthorpe United £5.6m.

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Really fascinating, thanks.

Not sure it warrants it's own thread though - it's one of those where interpretation of what it signifies will vary wildly so i just posted it as a point of information rather than something to be debated. that said it will provide a reference point for when the 2017/18 accounts come out.

It wasn't related to updates from Ken Anderson's updates so moved it to it's own thread.

BoltonTillIDie wrote:It wasn't related to updates from Ken Anderson's updates so moved it to it's own thread.

Fair enough.

Swiss ramble always a good read, puts the Madine sale into perspective. I’m no expert but to me it would suggest that in spite of being a division higher the 6 million from his sale will be needed to pay the operating loss we’re incurring.

Hopefully that annual loss will have reduced now, but if we don’t manage to make a multi million pound sale this season it will be interesting to see what the result is.

T.R.O.Y wrote:Swiss ramble always a good read, puts the Madine sale into perspective. I’m no expert but to me it would suggest that in spite of being a division higher the 6 million from his sale will be needed to pay the operating loss we’re incurring.

Hopefully that annual loss will have reduced now, but if we don’t manage to make a multi million pound sale this season it will be interesting to see what the result is.

Don't forget we've got rid of a lot of players on large contracts. Pratley went this year, Spearing the year before for example. Amos goes next year, I believe. 

That should add to our profitability. 

I'm also skeptical about Swiss Ramble and use it more as a guide. For example, the last time I saw their report on Bournemouth, they were eulogising Bournemouths financials, but, Bournemouth, from what I can see aren't doing anything different to what Bolton did when we were in the Premiership, ie running up a high soft debt. Yet Bolton got slaughtered by Swiss Ramble. 

Most of the £22million is still owned by Eddie Davies, ie £15 million (which is only payable, once we got the Premiership) or so we're told .So that leads to us owing just £7 million. 

If Ken is to be believed, we should be breaking even if not making a small profit this season. 

I think from where we were, that's pretty good.

No need to defend ken to me, I’ve said numerous times how good a job he’s done on the finances. I’ve also pointed out that I’d expect the loss to have reduced with the larger contracts finally done.

Are you referrng to this article?

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Seems a fair assessment using the facts at hand to me, they even makes the comparison to us. Not sure where you’ve read the eulogy?

T.R.O.Y wrote:No need to defend ken to me, I’ve said numerous times how good a job he’s done on the finances. I’ve also pointed out that I’d expect the loss to have reduced with the larger contracts finally done.

Are you referrng to this article?

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Seems a fair assessment using the facts at hand to me, they even makes the comparison to us. Not sure where you’ve read the eulogy?

Seems a far too positive report to me for a club that has Ann 88% net debt and rising and an average of 10,000 gated. Excuse me for being skeptical, but this is how we started. Owner putting large sums of money in, in the form of "soft loans" . Give them 10 years and they'll be in as much trouble as we were.

Doubt they will with the money in the prem now, but each to their own.