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Over the weekend it emerged that QPR have taken out a further loan from ABC Corporation in the sum of £1.3m. This is in addition to the existing £10m loan, and the extra £1.3m has to be repaid to ABC by 15 August 2007. The club claims it is going to fund the repayment of £1.3m partly from the Lee Cook transfer fee. |
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Cheap at twice the price |
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Not only that, but if QPR do not repay the £10m loan by this date, ABC will have the option to buy the Loftus Road ground for £10m. Bare details of these arrangements have just appeared on the Companies House website. There is something very strange going on here. The last published accounts, for the year ending May 2006, show the valuation of the Loftus ground value at £20m. And then, at a supporters’ meeting earlier this year, fans’ representatives were informed that Savill’s had recently revalued the ground, up again, at £24m. The ground valuation is the only thing that has been allowing the club to give the appearance of trading solvently: the debts shown in the last accounts were around £20m and were balanced by the supposed value of Loftus Road. Both QPR 1st and the Loyal Supporters Association attempted to contact the club at the weekend and have published responses from non-executive director Nicholas De Marco - see the links below. It seems clear that mismanagement and debts at the club have now escalated to the point where ABC Corporation are the only lenders prepared to do business with the QPR board. And in an attempt to stave off winding-up orders from the Inland Revenue and other creditors, the board has signed up to a set of desperately onerous loan terms. QPR Holdings chairman Antonio Caliendo needs to install a competent Chief Executive and management team at Loftus Road as a matter of urgency if the club and the ground are to stand any chance of survival. |
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