Shareholder update

Posted 22 January 2013 4:34pm

The Club can announce a profit from operations of £23m (2011: £38m) for the year ended 30 June 2012. Looking across the past five years this measure of cash generated from operations has averaged over £29m per annum.

Total Club revenue for the year was £144m, 12% lower than the prior year (2011: £163m), which was primarily due to the absence of Champions League football.

Revenues continued to increase on the commercial front with media revenues increasing 10% and Sponsorship and Corporate Hospitality also increasing 10%. Merchandising was 4% lower largely due to the lack of Champions League participation, but the focus on cost control ensured that operating costs were also lower, down 1% on the prior year.

The Club made an operating loss after football trading of £1.6m (2011: Profit £1.4m) and a loss for the year after interest and tax of £4.3m (2011: Profit £0.7m).

The Club continues to comply with UEFA Financial Fair Play criteria and supports its further integration into the Premier League.

It was with great pride that the Club opened and moved into its new 77 acre Training Centre in July 2012, a facility that has attracted many accolades. It affords the Club the ability to provide the optimum facilities for high quality training, teaching and rehabilitation for all squads at all levels.

In order for the Club to continue to thrive it is important to address the limitations placed on match day income by the current stadium. As previously reported, Phase 1 of the Northumberland Development Project has now commenced.

Chairman Daniel Levy commented:

"We are ever ambitious for the Club, driving all areas of the business and our focus continues to be the delivery of an increased capacity stadium. There is much work to be done refining the detailed design and resolving the final development issues. We intend to deliver this to the same high standards of the new Training Centre and to reward our incredibly loyal supporters with a world class stadium and one that will have made a crucial contribution to the regeneration of a priority borough in London."