Finance expert: West Brom ‘operational challenge’ as Companies House document emerges
We’re delighted to welcome football finance expert Dr Daniel Plumley as our exclusive West Brom columnist. Each week he’ll be giving his views on the biggest talking points at The Hawthorns...
West Brom are faced with an “operational challenge” as they begin the process of trying to repay back the £20million loan from MSD Holdings, according to Dan Plumley.
Albion took the controversial fou-year loan out of Michael Dell’s company on 28 December, securing the agreement against the club’s assets.
On the club’s Companies House page, a document has since emerged to show what assets of the club have been used to secure the loan.
As fans feared, The Hawthorns is there, as well as other club properties and intellectual property.
Plumley suggests that there’s nothing new that fans didn’t already know about in the charge sheet but admits that it’s tough for supporters to see what’s at stake in black and white.
“On the face of it, we’ve talked about the value of it and the interest rate. I suppose the other thing you might see here is what the loan is secured against and it’s against the ground, some of the land around the ground and some of the intellectual property of the club if you look at the description,” Plumley told West Brom News.
“On page one, it’s not unusual but that puts the club in a difficult position because you’ve now got a fairly hefty loan you owe with a fairly hefty interest rate and it’s secured against the assets of the club.
“That creates an operational challenge moving forward. It means you’ve got to pay it back and get that charge released so there’s then nothing secured against the assets of the club.”
In other West Brom news, Albion are in talks to terminate this big-money player’s contract early.