More thoughts on the accounts

I have now read through the club's accounts for the year ended 30 June 2102. As I anticipated, I don't have much to add to what the New York Addick has already said: he is more skilled at interpreting financial statements that I am. For the record I set out my thoughts below.

Charlton Athletic made an operating loss of just under £7.5m in its League 1 promotion season, compared with £6.13m the preceding season according to accounts lodged at Companies House. Profit of just over £1m on the disposal of players reduced the operating loss to £6.45m. However, the preceding year, £2.8m in profit was realised from player sales, reducing the operating loss to £3.3m.

The profit on players arose largely from the transfer of Elliott to Newcastle and contingent appearance fees for Shelvey and Richardson. The practice of accelerating transfer fees by discounting to financial institutions used in 2011 and involving a sum of just over £1.5m has not been repeated.

Further sums may be paid depending on the success of the players concerned. Additional transfer fees of £777,500 would become payable depending on appearances, international honours and 'on field playing success'. Beyond that additional fees of £3.84m are payable dependent on the same criteria.

Turnover increased by 2.4 per cent or £202,000 to £8.549m, largely due to an increase in match day ticket and hospitality sales. Attendances increased by 12 per cent from 15,582 to 17,428, a club record in the third tier. Ticket income and match day activities accounted for 60 per cent of revenue, followed by commercial revenue at 22 per cent and broadcasting at 13 per cent. The amounts realised from commercial activities and broadcasting were down slightly.

An area of concern is that staff costs amounted to 104 per cent of turnover. The figure recommended by Deloitte Sports Business is 50 per cent, but few clubs achieve that. Many Premiership clubs have ratios in the seventies and eighties and this figure puts the Addicks at the higher end of the spectrum.

The company had total bank loans of £5.77m. An amount of £9.94m (£2.6m in 2011) is owed to the immediate parent company, Baton 2010 Limited. The company's utimate holding company is CAFC Holdings Limited, a company registerered in the British Virgin Islands. The identity of the club's ultimate benefactors is thus unknown.