Chelsea posts £140m loss

Reproduced for posterity.

Chelsea confident of 2009/10 break even after results announcement

Chelsea FC plc today, (Friday, January 27), released our financial accounts to the year end June 30, 2005.

The accounts reveal a number of positive business trends:

— an overall reduction in payroll costs of 6% to £108.9m from £115.5m (2003/4).

— reduction in player acquisition costs to £101m from £175.1.

(In the year 2005/6 player acquisition costs are currently estimated at £57.5m, a further significant reduction).

— a 4.1% increase in football revenues to £122.7m from £117.9m.

— a reduction in payroll costs as a percentage of sales to 74.3% from 75.9%.

Further figures include:

— a reduction in turnover to £146.6m from £152.1m. The drop is due to the sale of Chelsea Village Travel. Sales for CVT were £9.9m.

— drop in group operating loss to £6.3m from £13.1m. (This figure is before depreciation, amortisation and exceptional items)

— increased loss before taxation to £140m from £87.8m. This is almost entirely due to a series of exceptional one-off items, Umbro termination £25.5m, Mutu write-off £13.8m, Veron write-off £9m and Academy recruitment £5m.

Chelsea FC chief executive Peter Kenyon said: “These figures reflect the continuing restructuring of the business which we began in 2003/4. The overall loss increase is, in the main, down to some exceptional items that were necessary in order to help us achieve our strategic business aim of break-even by 2009/10. In simple terms we have taken some pain now for long-term gain.

“For example, we terminated the Umbro contract which had a huge impact on these figures, but we have not yet seen any of the financial benefit of our new adidas contract. Similarly these figures do not include any of the monies from our new sponsorship deal with Samsung, which was the biggest in Premiership history.

“With continued success on the field and the resulting growth stemming from that of our fan base, memberships and revenues, we are confident of achieving our targets.�?

Source: Official Chelsea FC website

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