So instead of Saints owing the bank £6 million. They now owe the majority of it to to Mike Coleman and a few others? I fail to see a difference. Saints still have to pay it back don't they, granted with little to no interest I presume. But it's still a debt of £6 million.

Or is it a gift of £6 million that won't have to be repaid at all?

Great looking stadium though. Can't wait to win the first ever derby match held there!

You don't? How odd.

Maybe you'd like to explain it to those of us who are numerically challenged. Rather than being a smart ar*e about it.

I'm genuinely interested as to what's the difference between owing it to one person or another in this instance. Saints still owe it don't they?

Nice little stadium.

They do, in the same way they owed millions in directors loans which they no longer owe because they were converted into shares by the friendly "creditors". The best part of another million quid was written off in this way in this press release. When was the last time you saw a Bank decide it would write off millions of pounds in exchange for basically worthless shares in a rugby league club?

Saints new stadium has been funded by the Board and their rich chums. Do you reckon hedge fund managers lend to Saints because they think a hitherto loss-making rugby league club it is the best place for their cash? They have lent Saints the money because they are Saints fans and want the stadium built and the club debt free (other than their own "friendly" stakes).

It is a very clear distinction. Put it this way, do you reckon a multi-millionaire Saints fan is going to pull the plug on the club if they don't get their quarterly loan instalment? It's investment in the club by rich fans, rather than borrowing at horribly high interest rates from a commercial Bank (not that they would lend much to an institution like Saints anyway).

Saints lost around £1.3m on the 2010 accounts.
The financial year 2011 will have been very difficult so has Coleman underwritten the debt from those two years with his money? Or will he be funding the £2m fit out of the new place? It's not clear to me when he put the money in, exactly how much and where the money still required is to come from.
I'm sure it'll all be sorted in the end as McManus is getting Saints where many Saints fans thought might never be, in a new stadium.
Looks excellent, the Good Friday game should sell out weeks before!

Thnx FTV. I don't work in the financial sector so most of this is above and beyond me.

£6 million turned into shares/equity in Saints. Must be a pretty large chunk of St Helens that just been sold by McManus. Begs the question whether he'll still be the majority shareholder at the club.

Saints losses have no doubt been funded in the same way they have for the past goodness knows how many years - cash in from directors, which eventually get converted to shares (another £900kish has been so converted recently). These losses don't sit waiting to be funded at some point in the future - they result in cash requirements that have to be funded there and then. What happened in 2010 has been and gone, in the same way as what happened in 2011 has. The losses were funded at the time and the fact that the release states that Saints have no bank debt suggests that they were funded by the directors again.

Not quite - that £6m will sit in the balance sheet as debt, albeit debt due to Saints directors/fans as opposed to a Bank.

£3m of it is likely to be converted into shares in due course (the convertible bond). The other £3m is, I imagine, to be paid back over time if the club can do so.

McManus mentions in the statement that he expects the bond to be converted into shares, and that new shares will be issued (no doubt the majority of which will be bought by existing shareholders) to pay down the other loan (or a proportion of it).

As things stand it will be in the balance sheet as debt, but its like owing your dad rather than owing a loan shark

Little?compared to what?it looks fine to me and it will enhance super league

Compared to rented football stadiums I imagine.

yes

I highly doubt we have the money or location. We have a long lease on the DW so I can't see us entertaining the idea any time soon.

I quite like the DW, the facilities are the best in the country for RL and I highly doubt we could afford to replicate the high standard of facilities we have already

You got yourself your own version of, Mo, Whelan and Robinson there. Hope it works out better than it did for us