Debts

Aberdeen's debt is shown below. It is clear the debt is just steadily rising and this prompted the re-financing in the summer of 2006.

The reduction in debt in 2008 was excellent news, and comes directly from the European games. The 2009 figure shows that 2008 was probably just a blip.

The graph below shows the "net debt" position as reported by the club in its annual reports. The club seem keen to separate out "bank debt" and highlight its position. The other £2.5m of debt that is not bank debt is money that is owed to others. So for example Stewart Milne Group Ltd is owed £1.2m, and Aberdeen Asset Management are owed £1.0m (Martin Gilbert is the Chief Executive of Aberdeen Asset Management).

There is a very clear message form the board regarding the debt position. This says "... the net bank debt position at 30 June 2008 stood at £6,513,000. There has been a great deal of inaccurate reporting of the Club's bank debt position for a long time and ...welcome the opportunity to set the record straight."

There is a line in the accounts which says "Bank Term Loan", and says £9,7000,000 against it. The club seem to have said that they have cash in the bank and that that should be netted off against the money owed to the banks. There will still be a loan to pay off in 2011

The 2009 results show an increase in debt of £2m. This comes from two things. The first is the amount of money in the bank. This reduced by £1.3m from running the business at a loss for the year. The second was the amount of interest that wasn't paid in the year, but was rolled up in to the overall amount owed.

Net debt