'Okay set' - Football finance expert gives verdict on Bolton Wanderers latest accounts

Football finance expert Kieran Maguire believes Bolton Wanderers' latest accounts look an 'okay set' but believes the club will need to continue to need funding from its owners and shareholders for the meantime before it can become sustainable in the future.

The accounts for the year ending June 30 2021 for Football Ventures (Whites) Ltd, the club's parent company, were published earlier this week. It shows an operating loss for the period of £517,393, a big reduction compared to nearly £3.5m reported for the previous 12 months at Wanderers.

In terms of the financial year for the 12 months, a pre-tax loss of £1.468m was reported. However, this is a fall from the loss reported in the same set of figures for the 12 months up until the end of June 2020 which was £3.85m.

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Creditors' amounts come to some £31m and loans of £2.5m and more than £7.1m are due to be repaid on or before August 1 of this year. Interest of nearly £1.7m on the second amount will be waived if this is paid by this date.

However, some of these loans have been converted into shares. An allotment of shares appeared on Companies House yesterday worth approaching £5m.

Financial developments taking place after the end of June 2021 were also mentioned in the accounts. Shares worth £4m were issued to a Swiss consortium called BMLL Limited in January of this year.

Loans worth a total of £12.5m have also been converted into shares in the business. This occured towards the end of October 2021.

Turnover for the financial year was more than £6.1m, a drop from almost £9.4m for the 12 months up until June 2020. It meant a fall in gross profit from more than