Sunday, January 22, 2006
Chris Pennington - Past QPR Messageboard References
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[If anyone has anything else to add, feel free to email at QPRreport@hotmail.com]
CHRIS PENNINGTON
QPR OFFICIAL SITE Friday, January 20, 2006
QPR's CFO, Chris Pennington Departing " QPR's Chief Financial Officer, Chris Pennington, is leaving the club and moving on to pastures new.Chris, who has agreed to stay on until the end of February, said;"I wish the club all the best for the future and I'll look forward to returning to Loftus Road to cheer on the Superhoops."QPR Chairman, Gianni Paladini, thanked Pennington for his help."I'd like to thank him for his help since we came to the club. I wish him all the best for the future and he'll always be welcome at Loftus Road."http://www.qpr.premiumtv.co.uk/page/News/NewsDetail/0,,10373~771465,00.html
FORMER QPR CHAIRMAN, BILL POWER December 12, 2005..
"....I have not listened to or read what the latest argument is about, but from what I have heard it seems to me that 2 very passionate followers of the Rs are being both misunderstood and misquoted, in fact I made this point only a day ago on the offish site following a call, I immediately defended myself.Every innocent remark made by whoever is disected to death.God forbid anyone should speak metaphorically.Now its tax evasion.This is about the only thing a company [yes i know we are QPR not a co'] of our size cannot hide. The taxmen [C&E or Income] doesn't send in an invoice saying we think you probably owe us £6 but we will wait until the end of the financial year to be sure.In laymans terms we the club inform whichever tax dept each financial month of what we we have withheld from our players and salaried staff [in the case of income tax well in excess of 100k per month] or quarterly what we have received in excess of what we have paid in VAT [to C&E and for instance VAT from season ticket sales up front and payable long before the club has received the money from the credit card companies].This is handled by the Chief Financial Officer, Chris Pennington, he is the one who informs both tax depts of outstanding payments that we [QPR] need to make each month or qtr. There is no guess work and criminal charges could and should be made against anyone at the club with-holding any such information [and for the record i am not pointing a finger at the very able man I have just said is reporting these figures as I know he has and would have done]. Apparently, or alledgedly, or whatever is needed to say a comment is not chiseled in stone, Gianni passed a remark about payments not coming to light in his knowledge and I'm told he said tax or whatever. I'm certain it was frustration at the size of our debts and him perhaps not understanding the outstanding commitment, but its not for me to guess.What I know. as frustrating as that is, is the debt of the club is no more or less than we knew it to be for the last 15 months and quite frankly I am very relieved not to have that overwhelming pressure on me to try and resolve.Can we all stop 'casting the first stone'?None of us are perfect, lots of things are said and done in haste and repented at leisure.What we all know is that we are Hoops. ...Come on you Rs. .. http://www.qpr.org/forum/viewtopic.php?topic_view=threads&p=141640&t=42284
From Date? BP on Wanlock and Board power (from last year)bp also posted the following in January of this year."Board meetings are held monthly, the decision makers are always there, whether it is of any comfort to some I'm not sure but those people and them alone, Myself, Kevin McGrath, Mark Devlin and Chris Pennington discuss and decide all topics regarding the workings of QPR.I can categorically state that Moorbound, Barnaby and Wanlock have not interfered on a single occasion, but have continually offered any assistance they can including financially way beyond the recent offer that was fronted by Ross Jones."How things change eh?http://boards.rivals.net/default.asp?sid=925&p=16&style=2&forumId=3672&action=1&replytoid=533519295
QPR 1st's Meeting with Paladini & Caliendo - ReportMinutes/Report from Meeting with QPR Board reps Friday 21st October 2005 http://www.qpr1st.co.uk/documents/GandAminutes.docIn attendance:QPR Holdings Ltd Reps:Gianni Paladini (GP) Chairman; Antonio Caliendo (AC) Monaco groups’ consultant; Chris Pennington (CP) Chief financial officerQPR 1st Reps:Geoff Gibbs (GG) Treasurer; Tracy Stent (TS) ChairpersonOther: Tony Altieri; Italian translatorVenue: The Chairman’s office, QPR FC.http://www.qpr1st.co.uk/documents/GandAminutes.doc
SEPTEMBER 29 - STANDARD ON QPRjulia_ Posted on 29/9 1Standard Sport has obtained leaked documents from a Rangers board meeting on 24 August which set out in remarkable detail the way Power and club chief executive Mark Devlin were ousted.The minutes provide a rare and fascinating insight into the way QPR are now being run and are certain to interest the Football League who are watching events closely.Five directors - Paladini, Power, Carlos Dunga, Kevin McGrath and Gualtiero Trucco were present for the meeting. Non-board members including Devlin, company secretary Chris Pennington and Antonio Caliendo, the football agent who acts as a consultant for Barnaby and Wanlock Holdings - the two Monaco-based investment companies which own 30% of QPR - were also there......
.http://boards.rivals.net/default.asp?sid=925&p=16&style=2&forumId=3672&action=1&replytoid=533632904
OCTOBER 2005OCTOBER 2005 --QPR1stQPR 1st Minutes/Report from Meeting with QPR Board reps Friday 21st October 2005 In attendance: QPR Holdings Ltd Reps: Gianni Paladini (GP) Chairman; Antonio Caliendo (AC) Monaco groups’ consultant; Chris Pennington (CP) Chief financial officer QPR 1st Reps: Geoff Gibbs (GG) Treasurer; Tracy Stent (TS) Chairperson Other: Tony Altieri; Italian translator Venue: The Chairman’s office, QPR FC. Foreword Friday’s meeting was the second in what we hope will be a series with the new board at QPR holdings ltd and with key club personnel. As per the first meeting, the agenda/format of the meeting was taken from questions arising from a document, which had been prepared by the Trust in advance. The meeting was a lunchtime one, which allowed for a slightly more relaxed atmosphere
..... Another issue raised was the one relating to the sponsorship of his son’s racing car, and if it costs the club anything? CP said that he could confirm the sponsorship does not cost the club anything ...
Whilst it became apparent that GP did not wish to speak about many of the recent events, including the alleged gun incident and the departures of Bill Power and Mark Devlin, we raised the subject of the board minutes which had been published in the evening standard from that meeting back in August, and said how when on asking to view them ourselves, the Trust had been informed that due to the confidential nature of some of the content relating to them, the club were unable to issue them to us, and then lo and behold only days later large chunks from those minutes had appeared in the ES for all and sundry to read. CP replied that he understood our frustrations but that the club themselves had been doubly frustrated by the leaked minutes and went on to say how as a business, they could not release board minutes due to the confidential nature but that they (the club/board) would try to be as open as they possibly could be. .....
GP and CP both said that the various departments are in charge of their own areas and therefore if anyone has any problems in relation to say tickets, then supporters need to contact the box office etc. .....
We then asked the question about Kevin McGrath and if they could inform us as to why he had resigned from the board? GP and CP informed that it had been a mutual agreement, that Kevin has political aspirations, and when asked what is happening about his shares, they said that they do not know. Finances The next part of the report relates to the financial issues discussed and for easy reading, we have sectioned the various topics into individual paragraphs. a) 2004/5 accounts GP/CP advised these are completed and will show a loss in the region of £2.5million. The club intend to publish these to the members and call an AGM shortly. b) 2005/6 budget When asked about the projected losses, CP explained the loss in the current season would be between £1 and £1.5 million. It was accepted that CP could be no more specific as we are only five months in to the club’s financial year. The amount of the loss will also be affected by and transfer activity in January. CP went on to say that that under the new regime, the budget would be drawn up each year on a break-even basis rather than under one of the previous regimes when up to £3 million loss was budgeted with the misplaced hope that new investors would come in to finance the deficit. GP stated that from now on the club would be run in “The Italian Way” in that he would be in charge of the day to day running and the club would look to break even. When asked to elaborate further on what he meant by “The Italian Way” he said that basically so far they cut back staffing “to help the club” and that basically the Italian way means streamlining in that there will be more work with less people. He also said that they have now stopped making payments ‘on invoice’ and that all payments now go out at the end of each month i.e. players wages one specific date each month, staff wages the next, and bills etc the next day. He and AC also said that previously any one from five signatories could authorise cheques. Now it is 3 signatories required. c) Agents’ fees We asked, once and for all, could we clear up the agent’s fees issues, including the Brian Hassall/Nygaard situation, and also how much are we likely to spend on agents this year? GP told us that agents’ fees are a fact of life in football and he was now in charge of authorising these. He stated that the club will no longer pay fees for the renewals of contracts, that these would be down to players to pay their agents direct, and stated that Nygaard’s agent's fee was to be paid in tranches, and related to a player who cost nothing on a “Bosman”. We did get the feeling that GP was unwilling to be specific as to the level of future agents fees but he was willing to say that these would be within the overall budget to be prepared by CP.
.... Next up to be discussed was the issue of new finance and further loans by directors. GP explained that any losses from now on would be financed by new loans from the Monaco shareholders or directors. CP went on to say these new loans would be interest free and unsecured. He also stated they would be structured in such a way that these loans will not be repayable on demand which meant that if the investors lost interest in the club they would not be able to demand their money back, expect immediate repayment and if this did not happen, put the club back into administration. e) Players Contracts The highest basic wage paid by the club is £3,500 per week, which is augmented by bonuses and incentives. The players’ budget is estimated at £3.5m. GP was unwilling to state if he felt we could keep to this amount for the current year. f) Paye and Vat CP confirmed that Paye was being paid each month shortly after the due date of the 19th. This means the current year (2005/6) is to all intents and purposes is up to date and no new arrears are being created. There were some unspecified arrears from previous years that are reducing and being repaid monthly. Despite being asked the direct question CP was not willing to divulge the exact amount of these arrears. It was confirmed that Vat was being paid on time and the club was not currently being subjected to any Vat surcharges as a result of late payments. g) Interest paid We asked why the club had paid £1,150,000 interest in the 2004 accounts when only £1,000,000 was attributable to ABC and were told the extra £150,000 was in relation to “old regime” directors and shareholder loans, as well as to late payment interest for Paye and Vat. ABC loan We asked the question if The ABC Corporation are connected with any of the Monaco consortiums or the investors behind them. GP and AC seemed to find this amusing and stated categorically that ABC and the Monaco groups are not the same! GP and CP explained they had no more clue than us as to who was behind ABC. There is very little copy correspondence in the QPR offices in relation to the loan. CP advised that he did not know if any arrangement fee or commission was paid on the loan when originally set up. CP also stated that at the beginning of each financial year on 1st June the figures showed a £1million loss. It is hoped that ABC may accept early repayment of the loan, which will be re financed with a more traditional identifiable lender. We asked GP if there were any update on this, and if so would he be able to tell us with which banks the club are hoping to renegotiate with. GP stated that so far there have been talks with two banks, one of which would offer an interest rate of 6.5, whilst the other would offer 7%. He is unable to inform us at the time being as to which banks they have been talking to but CP said if they could get the loan renegotiated with a traditional institution, they would feel safer. He also said that on such a renegotiated deal, £300,000 per year in interest charges could be saved which could be directed to repaying the £10 million originally borrowed. When asked about any fee charges for early repayment by ABC and CP said it would be negotiable. And what about any new bank, what kind of security would they look at in order to protect their money? It was stated that any bank would secure a charge on the assets i.e. the ground. And is there any truth in the rumour that the club have been behind in its payments to the ABC Corporation we asked? Absolutely not replied GP. BP shares and the Hoops Fund We asked who was going to buy Bill Power’s shares and it was suggested they would most probably be bought by one of the Monaco groups, or even possibly another Monaco consortium with different ownership to the two existing investors. We explained that the Hoops fund currently holds £12,500 of supporters money, which in order to comply with the original concept, has to be spent on buying shares in QPR Holdings, with the money going to the club for a specific good cause. We acknowledged that the company is not in a position to create new shares as the Authorised capital is all issued and any increase would cost in excess of £5,000 in legal fees. We asked AC if he would be willing to speak to the Monaco group/s that would be purchasing Bill Power’s shares to ask them if they would allow us to purchase a small portion of them before they buy them all. AC and GP said they would look into it for us sometime in the near future when there is not so much going on. CP then stated he may know of someone who would be prepared to sell their existing shareholding for a nominal sum at the same time as the balance of HF monies going to the club. We stated that we would hope to achieve a holding based on the same price as that for recent/pending share transactions and he said he appreciates that any money going in to the club would have to be allocated to a specific project e.g. disabled facilities. He suggested we put our request in writing to him and he will then talk to other shareholders, as well as to AC. Future of the club We firstly asked if the board could speak about the entire atmosphere at the club recently and if it feels it is positive for the players, staff, and supporters? All three board members present admitted that the recent months and weeks had been difficult ones, that it hadn’t been easy, but that they now felt things were stabilising more. AC spoke once again of the Italian method, how in Italy they (the board) run the clubs and the fans support the team. He said he likes the idea that boards and supporters are close and that he would like to go back to Italy and show them the English way. We moved on then to talk about ticket prices and asked if the fall off in attendances were leading to a loss of income greater than anticipated or budgeted for? CP confirmed that gate turnover is up in the current year in terms of monetary terms even though crowds are down. The likelihood of this continuing during the latter part of the season of course though will depend on future performances etc. Both GP and CP could not advise as to the split in the decreased season ticket numbers between Adults/Juniors/Student/OAP. AC said that when the season tickets went up they (GP and himself) were not consulted. We then asked a rather difficult question in that if AC could clarify as to the substance of the rumours we heard last year about a sale and leaseback of the ground having been mooted by him and other board members? And also would the current board consider doing a sale and leaseback of the Loftus Road ground in the future? AC said he would not respond to something like that as it was a complete non-goer. GP himself appeared to become quite agitated regarding this matter and said how he could not understand why so many people seemed to talk about the sale of the ground and insinuating that they (the new board) were a bunch of crooks. GG explained that there have been instances in the past of clubs having lost their grounds after false promises by their owners (Brighton and Maidstone were given as examples) and that supporters only wished to seek reassurances that their club would have a ground to play at in the future. Which then led to a rather interesting discussion about a potential new ground in which basically the idea is that QPR would ‘own’ a new ground on the Astroturf/park site in South Africa road, which would cost in excess of £40m to build. This would apparently be self-financing. GP stated twice that should such an idea become a reality, QPR would own the new ground, and would stay at the existing Loftus Road whilst it was being built. We stated that if such a new ground were to ever go ahead i.e. if the council were to give planning permission etc, then there would need to be a strict stipulation that QPR would remain playing at LR until the new ground would be built. GP agreed and said he would agree to this as being a written condition within any planning application. We did point out to GP that football is littered with architect’s models of new stadiums that have never happened hence our initial scepticism. One final question asked before CP and Tony had to leave the meeting was how the board envisage the various groups remaining at QPR for the foreseeable future, particularly so if we do not go up either for this or next season? GP responded by saying that as far as he is concerned he is here for the foreseeable future, that he only wants to do what is right for the club, and AC reiterated that the people in the Monaco groups have invested because of their trust in him and so he cannot see any reason as to why they would wish to pull out. AOB Season tickets and future ideas With Tony and CP having departed we then moved onto a couple of other specific issues with the first one being the season ticket/matchday ticket prices. We presented to GP and AC a document that the Trust had put together containing a number of proactive marketing ideas relating to this whole matter. The suggestion was for GP and AC to have a look at it all, for GP to liaise with Mike Pink at the commercial and marketing department, and also with Jenny Elliott, the box office manager, because they will be the people that will need to decide upon the feasibility of such ideas, and for us all to have a little chat about it in a month’s time or so. To view the documents (there are 2, one is suggested ideas for season tickets/matchday prices and the other is a doc with suggested student schemes) click on the links on the homepage from where the link for this report was posted. We welcome any feedback on this. GG also handed GP and AC a copy each of a Goodwood racecourse members’ booklet containing information on reciprocal events. The suggested idea of QPR looking into a similar reciprocal basis relating to other sporting events has been mentioned within the season tickets document as an idea to think about to give season ticket holders some kind of extra benefit. Football league letter The old chestnut of the football league letter, sent to the old board back in March 2002, in which it was apparently stated that in order to retain its membership of the FL, QPR needed to come out of administration by the time the fixture list came out, was raised, with TS asking GP if he would give the Trust permission to go to the football league, informing them that the supporters trust had the permission of the club to allow it to publish this letter on their website, thus clearing up the matter once and for all? GP said he would be happy to give us permission, said he hadn’t seen the letter himself, TS assured him it did exist, and so he is going to sign a letter to the effect asking the FL to allow us to do this. Fans Forum We asked if there were any update on this since our last meeting, TS pointed out that it was part of the club’s customer charter, and GP informed he would speak to Phil Harris and get something arranged for before Christmas. Ian Holloway The final question to be asked related to Ian Holloway, and if there were any news on a new contract for him? GP refused to be drawn on the subject and just said that Ian Holloway is the manager, and that any talks of new contracts would occur as and when. Summary We would like to thank Gianni Paladini, Antonio Caliendo and Chris Pennington for their time. The meeting lasted for over two and a half hours and was based on a part formal/part informal structure. Whilst there remain unanswered questions, we do feel that it was most certainly a worthwhile meeting and we hope that what we have reported on has been of interest to members and the fanbase in general alike. We are conscious that there are many on-pitch issues to be discussed but with time so scarce we opted to pursue the off-pitch matters that the Trust feels required flagging during the time that we had. We will though continue to push for a fans forum at which there will be plenty of opportunity for all kinds of issues to be discussed with GP and relevant club personnel. CP reminded us he has now been with the club for a year and stated that he was sleeping soundly at night for the first time in ages. He accepted that the club’s £9 million turnover meant it was not a particularly large business and appeared anxious to avoid falling into the trap of spending money as if it were a company with a larger turnover. It will be interesting to see if CP delivers the 2005 accounts on time (as promised by GP at our two meetings now) and with the exception of the Paye arrears, CP answered all our questions, and more, without having to research. Regarding the situation of a potential new ground, we are pursuing a meeting with the local authority, they have been frustratingly slow in getting back to us, but we will persevere with this. http://www.qpr1st.co.uk/documents/GandAminutes.doc - -
QPR 1st Report on QPR Holdings Limited AGM report
July 15, 2005
Held at The Blue & White Club on 6 July 2005 at 3.00 pm By Geoff Gibbs The top table consisted of Bill Power (Chairman), Gianni Paladini (Director), Mark Devlin (CEO), Kevin McGrath (Director), Chris Pennington (Company Secretary & Chief Financial Officer), Antonio Caliendi (for Barnaby Holdings), Gualtiero Trucco (for Warnock LLC)
Although the meeting was notionally chaired by Bill Power it was generally ran by Kevin McGrath who commenced by apologising that the accounts to 31 May 2004 were delivered late and acknowledged that this was despite promises having been made at the previous AGM where he said accounts would be ready by the end of 2004. He went on to state the current year’s accounts to 31 May 2005 were on schedule to be completed by the end of 2005 and hoped that the next AGM would take place in January 2006. It was explained that Gianni Paladini is now a Director and his wife Olga, who previously represented his interests, had stood down. He then went on to state that, despite the success of achieving promotion in 2003/04, from a business perspective the financial year ended 31 May 2004 was disastrous. He emphasised that the accounts covered a period when the old executive team was in place and there were now considerably less people employed by the club who were collectively doing a lot more work than previously. Kevin and Chris both said that the draft accounts to 31 May 2005 were indicating a loss of £2.5m. In the current year to 31 May 2006 the recently prepared budgets had been drawn up on the basis that the club would break even. However, in reality a loss of somewhere between £500k to £1m is anticipated unless the club have a good cup run or some other similar windfall. When asked how the Club was going to sustain these ongoing losses, it was suggested this would be achieved through new money from the Directors. Chris Pennington was asked whether he considered the Company insolvent and he said no as the auditors were satisfied that it was able to keep trading for the foreseeable future and they had ratified the going concern note made in the Directors’ report. Kevin went on to say that in five years it was anticipated the Company should experience regular profit but all this money would be ploughed into the Club. One advantage of the club making a profit would be its likely exemption from Corporation Tax due to its substantial losses in the past. A question was asked about whether the Club was up-to-date with the repayments due on the ABC loan and it was explained that these were on schedule. Once the loan has been running for five years, ABC have a right to increase the interest rate. However, if they do, the Club have a right to repay the loan refinance. Otherwise this loan is scheduled to run for its original ten-year period. It was confirmed there were no exit fees arising after ten years on the loan but it is likely that such fees would be payable if the loan was repaid early. A question was asked in relation to Chris Wright’s old shares and Bill Power said they were sold to him with any extra proceeds being redirected to the Club. Kevin McGrath mentioned that in the current year there would be a big jump in TV revenue to over £1m due to the new Sky deal. In addition, there may be an extra £400k payable for sale of fixture lists, but this was currently in dispute. A question was asked in relation to David Davies’ redundancy and the substantial amount of £95,000 paid to him. Bill Power said it was like cutting his arm off to pay him as much as 1p, but faced with the situation that DD could have stayed in his position, the Club would then have had to carefully engineer disciplinary proceedings. Typically this process would take nine months throughout which DD would have had to be paid his normal salary. It was explained that the payoff was the best solution to a bad situation and would enable the Club to go forward under the new management. The Resolutions on the AGM Notice were all noted and carried almost unanimously. The floor was then opened for any other business. The first question was in relation to Gino but it was explained that he left at the end of the season and had now signed a contract with Nottingham Forest. A question was asked about the availability of the ex-Dairy site at White City and it was confirmed that Kevin McGrath had made initial enquiries and would follow these up. It was reiterated that the unique selling point of QPR was its location and it was appreciated that if they were to move to a new stadium, it must not be far from the current site if the atmosphere and support were to be maintained. Ian Holloway arrived at 3.30 p.m. and joined the top table. A question was asked in relation to Wasps. Bill Power replied that he handled the negotiations with Chris Wright himself and appreciated it appeared that QPR were the patsies in the deal and the outcome and negotiations were a one way street in Wasps favour. Bill went on to explain that the Wasps contract originally drafted by DD was not worth a penny and was full of holes. Although in terms of counter claim it was valued at £1.5m, this was only as a result of the Club attempting to maximise its situation from a negotiating point of view. Bill stated that the outcome was the best that could be obtained and Wasps would not be coming back. A question was asked in relation to the number of season tickets sold. This was answered unspecifically; it was stated the numbers had dropped but no actuals were given. Ian Holloway was asked about the new players. Simon Royce we are already familiar with and therefore needed no introduction. Ian Evatt was introduced to the Club via Gianni who had previously dealt with him in his agent’s capacity at Derby. There had been a corrupt situation there, which precipitated his move to Chesterfield and Gianni had travelled abroad to meet the player to finalise the deal. Tommy Doherty- Ian described him as a “pit bull justice enforcer”. Stefan Moore- He had really impressed Ian in training and had the ability to chase down paper bags from the air. Ian went on to explain that only two seasons ago Dean Sturridge scored 21 goals in 22 games and to all intents and purposes, was a new player. He thought that Dominic Shimmin, acquired from Arsenal at the end of last season, was the most exciting prospect he had seen for a long time and couldn’t wait to get his hands on him. The meeting then descended into farce with references to Gary Glitter by Kevin McGrath and Ian responding with a Michael Jackson joke. Sam Parkin had not been purchased by the Club as his price was too high and similarly if Richard Langley returned he would only have been offered half his Cardiff wages and therefore this situation would be a non-starter. A question was asked in relation to the new training ground and was answered by Kevin McGrath who said there was a new lease in existence at a fixed rental but in due course the Club intended to make an offer to purchase the training ground currently owned by Imperial College. The benefits of the new training ground are it’s modern facilities (on which Chelsea had spent a small fortune) and that that all the QPR teams would be “under one roof”. There was a question from the floor inquiring whether the supporters could get involved in the purchase of the ground but this was not really answered. Ian Holloway went on to explain his ideas about buying young, promising players and compared that with the policies of the past i.e. with the purchase of an over 30 Mike Sherron. It was summed up that Chris Wright had been very naive and believed what he was being told by the authorities to whom he had delegated the running of the Club. Similarly, he considered the large number of long contracts handed out to young trainees in the light of the Bosnan ruling was an understated source of the financial difficulties the Club had experienced leading up to Administration. Ian finished by hinting about further signings by saying “I can’t say anything at the moment but you will be so proud soon”. From the writer’s point of view Ian’s body language was good and he was very consistent in everything he said, in particular about not throwing the kids in at the deep end, which he had to do at Burnley last year. To sum up, there were a lot of questions unanswered at the AGM and the Trust will attempt to delve in to the specifics at our regular meetings at the Club. Unlike the 2004 AGM the top table were not slow this time in openly criticising the previous administrations. We will have some idea if this criticism is justified when the results for the current year to 31 May 2005 are published. If they arrive before the end of 2005 and are in line with Chris Pennington’s expectations, then this will at least be a step in the right direction. Overall it was an enjoyable meeting to attend but get the feeling that this is probably as a result of Ian getting good at dealing with the public and making his audience laugh out loud, he really must have a future in motivational or after dinner speaking. Geoff Gibbs - QPR1st Steering Group http://www.qpr1st.co.uk/main/newsarticle.asp?id=14
Dave's QPR
2004 AGM Report
Yesterday saw the QPR Holdings PLC AGM and as ever it was an interesting meeting. Below is a report from the meeting written by Crash and posted on the qpr.org message board. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Bring back Blackburn I say, at least we could have someone to loathe :-)
Todays AGM was well attended by the usual suspects, at the top table were: Chris Pennington - Finance David Anderson - company secretary Kevin McGrath - Chairman of plc Bill Power - Chairman of QPR Mark Devlin - CEO Azeem Malik - Director representing Moorbound Limited The motions were all passed, including the one to make the plc a Limited company. The votes were carried by 98-99%, only after Kevin had phoned Chris Wright to persuade him to change his mind - he originally was going to vote against the motion to allow the board of directors to sell the 30million shares they are holding. Kevin answered most of the questions and was an excellent chairman. Kevin resigned as acting Chairman of the plc at the end of the meeting and now bp is Chairman of both the limited company and QPR. It was stated that the board will sell the shares to anyone and you can expect a share scheme to be announced whereby fans can purchase shares at 6.5p. The big surprise for me was that Ross Jones attended, which I have to take my hat off to and he answered many questions about the financial dealings that had occurred in 2002-2003. However, he still held the GOT party line. He stated when challenged that there was no other option but to take the ABC loan as the league were about to shut us down. However, a previous Director from the floor challenged him that a loan of 6% interest was on offer at the time. Ross said that if that was true the club could sue Stoy Hayward, the Administrators. Then Kevin stated that Stoy are now acting as agents of ABC. Watch this space as hopefully the Board are going to do something about this. Ross then offered to sell his shares to anyone who wanted them for 6.5p, he would take 3p and would give 3.5p to the club - a marvelous jesture if taken up. Giani stated that Holloway wasn't at the AGM as he had sent him and his familiy on a holiday to Capri. He said if he will send him to Capri everytime we have a result like we did against Crystal Palace. Harold Winton was asked about moneys owing to the club, and he quite rightly got very upset and explained that the problem was due to the previous Board and was going to be resolved with the new Board. When you consider what the Wintons have put into the club, thought the question was a disgrace. Anyway, later on Harold got back up and gave a good rallying cry and said we would win promotion this season and implored fans to take a bet as the odds at the momment are so good!! The Board of Directors have provided between 3-3.5 Million to Holloway to keep our team in mid table. A long time was spent explaining how money is needed to get promotion. When we went down from the old 1st division players expenses over 7Million, so that puts it into perspective. The club needs to raise 2Million to break even and the Monaco deal is still in negotiation, but likely to be scaled down. It was confirmed that Binatone gave the club 70,000 first season, 80,000 second and 80,000 the third. They pay for their own box. Giani is looing to sign another shirt deal for a large amount. It was stated that the Fulham deal netted the club 330,000 profit, which is much hgher than we would have realised if Wasps were our tennants. The Wasps situation is being persued by the Board. Chris Wright is refussing to give his shares away and back to the club. 180k is the highest basic salary one of our players is being paid. Mark Devlin was going to investigate why fans could not get through to the box office this morning. He stated that all season tickets have been posted from somewhere up north (so the Bush post office flooding is not an issue). If anyone hasn't got their season ticket by Friday then they are to phone the box office and they will arrange a duplicate to be picked up on Saturday. The farce about the stewards was talked about. Mark said it was unadvisable to change the steward and catering company's at the end of the season as it does not give enough time. The stewarding company is going to bus people down from Manchester (they steward Man U) and it was the local council that is putting restrictions on QPR. Mark is expecting that the busing of stewards down will satisfy the local council, faxed them the details this morning and awaiting their reply. he is expecting to resume general sale of tickets.
http://www.queensparkrangersfc.com/newsaugust5.htm
BOARDROOM BLUES
AGM ON 4 AUGUST [2004]- INTRODUCTION
Kevin McGrath, the chairman of the plc and of today's AGM, began his overview by saying that these are turbulent times for QPR. In spite of the success on the field there are still severe financial problems, which culminated in the resignations of Paul English, David Davies, Nick Blackburn, Ross Jones and Samantha Taylor. The new board has only had hands-on responsibility for a couple of months.
....Kevin McGrath then introduced the other directors and staff on the stage.
Azeem Malik is a director who represents Moorbound Ltd which in turn represents Gianni Paladini's business interest in QPR. Paladini has "boundless enthusiasm" for QPR and, having put some £650k into the club, is the largest single investor for several years. McGrath said Paladini has a fantastic knowledge of the game, and that it is a privilege to have him on the team at QPR.
Mark Devlin has returned to QPR as Chief Executive after helping reduce Swindon FC's losses from £3m to £300,000. He is "a QPR man" with inside knowledge both of QPR and of running a club in very difficult circumstances.
Bill Power, the chairman of the football club, joined the board after buying some 3m shares and bought a further 1m shares last week. McGrath said: "Bill has the potential to be the best chairman here since Jim Gregory, and I hope he's still chairman when he's 65."
David Anderson is a chartered accountant and the company secretary of QPR Holdings plc. He has put a huge amount of time and effort into the accounts, all on a voluntary basis.
Chris Pennington is not a director but has stepped in to work on the finances following the departure of Paul English, the old Finance Director.
Kevin McGrath made a short personal statement himself, explaining that he feels very proud and privileged to be on the board. He announced that at the end of the meeting he would be remaining a director but standing down as Acting Chairman of the plc and would be replaced by Bill Power. The club only needs one chairman, especially now that it is becoming a private company rather than a plc.
http://www.boardroomblues.co.uk/agmintroduction.htm
[If anyone has anything else to add, feel free to email at QPRreport@hotmail.com]
CHRIS PENNINGTON
QPR OFFICIAL SITE Friday, January 20, 2006
QPR's CFO, Chris Pennington Departing " QPR's Chief Financial Officer, Chris Pennington, is leaving the club and moving on to pastures new.Chris, who has agreed to stay on until the end of February, said;"I wish the club all the best for the future and I'll look forward to returning to Loftus Road to cheer on the Superhoops."QPR Chairman, Gianni Paladini, thanked Pennington for his help."I'd like to thank him for his help since we came to the club. I wish him all the best for the future and he'll always be welcome at Loftus Road."http://www.qpr.premiumtv.co.uk/page/News/NewsDetail/0,,10373~771465,00.html
FORMER QPR CHAIRMAN, BILL POWER December 12, 2005..
"....I have not listened to or read what the latest argument is about, but from what I have heard it seems to me that 2 very passionate followers of the Rs are being both misunderstood and misquoted, in fact I made this point only a day ago on the offish site following a call, I immediately defended myself.Every innocent remark made by whoever is disected to death.God forbid anyone should speak metaphorically.Now its tax evasion.This is about the only thing a company [yes i know we are QPR not a co'] of our size cannot hide. The taxmen [C&E or Income] doesn't send in an invoice saying we think you probably owe us £6 but we will wait until the end of the financial year to be sure.In laymans terms we the club inform whichever tax dept each financial month of what we we have withheld from our players and salaried staff [in the case of income tax well in excess of 100k per month] or quarterly what we have received in excess of what we have paid in VAT [to C&E and for instance VAT from season ticket sales up front and payable long before the club has received the money from the credit card companies].This is handled by the Chief Financial Officer, Chris Pennington, he is the one who informs both tax depts of outstanding payments that we [QPR] need to make each month or qtr. There is no guess work and criminal charges could and should be made against anyone at the club with-holding any such information [and for the record i am not pointing a finger at the very able man I have just said is reporting these figures as I know he has and would have done]. Apparently, or alledgedly, or whatever is needed to say a comment is not chiseled in stone, Gianni passed a remark about payments not coming to light in his knowledge and I'm told he said tax or whatever. I'm certain it was frustration at the size of our debts and him perhaps not understanding the outstanding commitment, but its not for me to guess.What I know. as frustrating as that is, is the debt of the club is no more or less than we knew it to be for the last 15 months and quite frankly I am very relieved not to have that overwhelming pressure on me to try and resolve.Can we all stop 'casting the first stone'?None of us are perfect, lots of things are said and done in haste and repented at leisure.What we all know is that we are Hoops. ...Come on you Rs. .. http://www.qpr.org/forum/viewtopic.php?topic_view=threads&p=141640&t=42284
From Date? BP on Wanlock and Board power (from last year)bp also posted the following in January of this year."Board meetings are held monthly, the decision makers are always there, whether it is of any comfort to some I'm not sure but those people and them alone, Myself, Kevin McGrath, Mark Devlin and Chris Pennington discuss and decide all topics regarding the workings of QPR.I can categorically state that Moorbound, Barnaby and Wanlock have not interfered on a single occasion, but have continually offered any assistance they can including financially way beyond the recent offer that was fronted by Ross Jones."How things change eh?http://boards.rivals.net/default.asp?sid=925&p=16&style=2&forumId=3672&action=1&replytoid=533519295
QPR 1st's Meeting with Paladini & Caliendo - ReportMinutes/Report from Meeting with QPR Board reps Friday 21st October 2005 http://www.qpr1st.co.uk/documents/GandAminutes.docIn attendance:QPR Holdings Ltd Reps:Gianni Paladini (GP) Chairman; Antonio Caliendo (AC) Monaco groups’ consultant; Chris Pennington (CP) Chief financial officerQPR 1st Reps:Geoff Gibbs (GG) Treasurer; Tracy Stent (TS) ChairpersonOther: Tony Altieri; Italian translatorVenue: The Chairman’s office, QPR FC.http://www.qpr1st.co.uk/documents/GandAminutes.doc
SEPTEMBER 29 - STANDARD ON QPRjulia_ Posted on 29/9 1Standard Sport has obtained leaked documents from a Rangers board meeting on 24 August which set out in remarkable detail the way Power and club chief executive Mark Devlin were ousted.The minutes provide a rare and fascinating insight into the way QPR are now being run and are certain to interest the Football League who are watching events closely.Five directors - Paladini, Power, Carlos Dunga, Kevin McGrath and Gualtiero Trucco were present for the meeting. Non-board members including Devlin, company secretary Chris Pennington and Antonio Caliendo, the football agent who acts as a consultant for Barnaby and Wanlock Holdings - the two Monaco-based investment companies which own 30% of QPR - were also there......
.http://boards.rivals.net/default.asp?sid=925&p=16&style=2&forumId=3672&action=1&replytoid=533632904
OCTOBER 2005OCTOBER 2005 --QPR1stQPR 1st Minutes/Report from Meeting with QPR Board reps Friday 21st October 2005 In attendance: QPR Holdings Ltd Reps: Gianni Paladini (GP) Chairman; Antonio Caliendo (AC) Monaco groups’ consultant; Chris Pennington (CP) Chief financial officer QPR 1st Reps: Geoff Gibbs (GG) Treasurer; Tracy Stent (TS) Chairperson Other: Tony Altieri; Italian translator Venue: The Chairman’s office, QPR FC. Foreword Friday’s meeting was the second in what we hope will be a series with the new board at QPR holdings ltd and with key club personnel. As per the first meeting, the agenda/format of the meeting was taken from questions arising from a document, which had been prepared by the Trust in advance. The meeting was a lunchtime one, which allowed for a slightly more relaxed atmosphere
..... Another issue raised was the one relating to the sponsorship of his son’s racing car, and if it costs the club anything? CP said that he could confirm the sponsorship does not cost the club anything ...
Whilst it became apparent that GP did not wish to speak about many of the recent events, including the alleged gun incident and the departures of Bill Power and Mark Devlin, we raised the subject of the board minutes which had been published in the evening standard from that meeting back in August, and said how when on asking to view them ourselves, the Trust had been informed that due to the confidential nature of some of the content relating to them, the club were unable to issue them to us, and then lo and behold only days later large chunks from those minutes had appeared in the ES for all and sundry to read. CP replied that he understood our frustrations but that the club themselves had been doubly frustrated by the leaked minutes and went on to say how as a business, they could not release board minutes due to the confidential nature but that they (the club/board) would try to be as open as they possibly could be. .....
GP and CP both said that the various departments are in charge of their own areas and therefore if anyone has any problems in relation to say tickets, then supporters need to contact the box office etc. .....
We then asked the question about Kevin McGrath and if they could inform us as to why he had resigned from the board? GP and CP informed that it had been a mutual agreement, that Kevin has political aspirations, and when asked what is happening about his shares, they said that they do not know. Finances The next part of the report relates to the financial issues discussed and for easy reading, we have sectioned the various topics into individual paragraphs. a) 2004/5 accounts GP/CP advised these are completed and will show a loss in the region of £2.5million. The club intend to publish these to the members and call an AGM shortly. b) 2005/6 budget When asked about the projected losses, CP explained the loss in the current season would be between £1 and £1.5 million. It was accepted that CP could be no more specific as we are only five months in to the club’s financial year. The amount of the loss will also be affected by and transfer activity in January. CP went on to say that that under the new regime, the budget would be drawn up each year on a break-even basis rather than under one of the previous regimes when up to £3 million loss was budgeted with the misplaced hope that new investors would come in to finance the deficit. GP stated that from now on the club would be run in “The Italian Way” in that he would be in charge of the day to day running and the club would look to break even. When asked to elaborate further on what he meant by “The Italian Way” he said that basically so far they cut back staffing “to help the club” and that basically the Italian way means streamlining in that there will be more work with less people. He also said that they have now stopped making payments ‘on invoice’ and that all payments now go out at the end of each month i.e. players wages one specific date each month, staff wages the next, and bills etc the next day. He and AC also said that previously any one from five signatories could authorise cheques. Now it is 3 signatories required. c) Agents’ fees We asked, once and for all, could we clear up the agent’s fees issues, including the Brian Hassall/Nygaard situation, and also how much are we likely to spend on agents this year? GP told us that agents’ fees are a fact of life in football and he was now in charge of authorising these. He stated that the club will no longer pay fees for the renewals of contracts, that these would be down to players to pay their agents direct, and stated that Nygaard’s agent's fee was to be paid in tranches, and related to a player who cost nothing on a “Bosman”. We did get the feeling that GP was unwilling to be specific as to the level of future agents fees but he was willing to say that these would be within the overall budget to be prepared by CP.
.... Next up to be discussed was the issue of new finance and further loans by directors. GP explained that any losses from now on would be financed by new loans from the Monaco shareholders or directors. CP went on to say these new loans would be interest free and unsecured. He also stated they would be structured in such a way that these loans will not be repayable on demand which meant that if the investors lost interest in the club they would not be able to demand their money back, expect immediate repayment and if this did not happen, put the club back into administration. e) Players Contracts The highest basic wage paid by the club is £3,500 per week, which is augmented by bonuses and incentives. The players’ budget is estimated at £3.5m. GP was unwilling to state if he felt we could keep to this amount for the current year. f) Paye and Vat CP confirmed that Paye was being paid each month shortly after the due date of the 19th. This means the current year (2005/6) is to all intents and purposes is up to date and no new arrears are being created. There were some unspecified arrears from previous years that are reducing and being repaid monthly. Despite being asked the direct question CP was not willing to divulge the exact amount of these arrears. It was confirmed that Vat was being paid on time and the club was not currently being subjected to any Vat surcharges as a result of late payments. g) Interest paid We asked why the club had paid £1,150,000 interest in the 2004 accounts when only £1,000,000 was attributable to ABC and were told the extra £150,000 was in relation to “old regime” directors and shareholder loans, as well as to late payment interest for Paye and Vat. ABC loan We asked the question if The ABC Corporation are connected with any of the Monaco consortiums or the investors behind them. GP and AC seemed to find this amusing and stated categorically that ABC and the Monaco groups are not the same! GP and CP explained they had no more clue than us as to who was behind ABC. There is very little copy correspondence in the QPR offices in relation to the loan. CP advised that he did not know if any arrangement fee or commission was paid on the loan when originally set up. CP also stated that at the beginning of each financial year on 1st June the figures showed a £1million loss. It is hoped that ABC may accept early repayment of the loan, which will be re financed with a more traditional identifiable lender. We asked GP if there were any update on this, and if so would he be able to tell us with which banks the club are hoping to renegotiate with. GP stated that so far there have been talks with two banks, one of which would offer an interest rate of 6.5, whilst the other would offer 7%. He is unable to inform us at the time being as to which banks they have been talking to but CP said if they could get the loan renegotiated with a traditional institution, they would feel safer. He also said that on such a renegotiated deal, £300,000 per year in interest charges could be saved which could be directed to repaying the £10 million originally borrowed. When asked about any fee charges for early repayment by ABC and CP said it would be negotiable. And what about any new bank, what kind of security would they look at in order to protect their money? It was stated that any bank would secure a charge on the assets i.e. the ground. And is there any truth in the rumour that the club have been behind in its payments to the ABC Corporation we asked? Absolutely not replied GP. BP shares and the Hoops Fund We asked who was going to buy Bill Power’s shares and it was suggested they would most probably be bought by one of the Monaco groups, or even possibly another Monaco consortium with different ownership to the two existing investors. We explained that the Hoops fund currently holds £12,500 of supporters money, which in order to comply with the original concept, has to be spent on buying shares in QPR Holdings, with the money going to the club for a specific good cause. We acknowledged that the company is not in a position to create new shares as the Authorised capital is all issued and any increase would cost in excess of £5,000 in legal fees. We asked AC if he would be willing to speak to the Monaco group/s that would be purchasing Bill Power’s shares to ask them if they would allow us to purchase a small portion of them before they buy them all. AC and GP said they would look into it for us sometime in the near future when there is not so much going on. CP then stated he may know of someone who would be prepared to sell their existing shareholding for a nominal sum at the same time as the balance of HF monies going to the club. We stated that we would hope to achieve a holding based on the same price as that for recent/pending share transactions and he said he appreciates that any money going in to the club would have to be allocated to a specific project e.g. disabled facilities. He suggested we put our request in writing to him and he will then talk to other shareholders, as well as to AC. Future of the club We firstly asked if the board could speak about the entire atmosphere at the club recently and if it feels it is positive for the players, staff, and supporters? All three board members present admitted that the recent months and weeks had been difficult ones, that it hadn’t been easy, but that they now felt things were stabilising more. AC spoke once again of the Italian method, how in Italy they (the board) run the clubs and the fans support the team. He said he likes the idea that boards and supporters are close and that he would like to go back to Italy and show them the English way. We moved on then to talk about ticket prices and asked if the fall off in attendances were leading to a loss of income greater than anticipated or budgeted for? CP confirmed that gate turnover is up in the current year in terms of monetary terms even though crowds are down. The likelihood of this continuing during the latter part of the season of course though will depend on future performances etc. Both GP and CP could not advise as to the split in the decreased season ticket numbers between Adults/Juniors/Student/OAP. AC said that when the season tickets went up they (GP and himself) were not consulted. We then asked a rather difficult question in that if AC could clarify as to the substance of the rumours we heard last year about a sale and leaseback of the ground having been mooted by him and other board members? And also would the current board consider doing a sale and leaseback of the Loftus Road ground in the future? AC said he would not respond to something like that as it was a complete non-goer. GP himself appeared to become quite agitated regarding this matter and said how he could not understand why so many people seemed to talk about the sale of the ground and insinuating that they (the new board) were a bunch of crooks. GG explained that there have been instances in the past of clubs having lost their grounds after false promises by their owners (Brighton and Maidstone were given as examples) and that supporters only wished to seek reassurances that their club would have a ground to play at in the future. Which then led to a rather interesting discussion about a potential new ground in which basically the idea is that QPR would ‘own’ a new ground on the Astroturf/park site in South Africa road, which would cost in excess of £40m to build. This would apparently be self-financing. GP stated twice that should such an idea become a reality, QPR would own the new ground, and would stay at the existing Loftus Road whilst it was being built. We stated that if such a new ground were to ever go ahead i.e. if the council were to give planning permission etc, then there would need to be a strict stipulation that QPR would remain playing at LR until the new ground would be built. GP agreed and said he would agree to this as being a written condition within any planning application. We did point out to GP that football is littered with architect’s models of new stadiums that have never happened hence our initial scepticism. One final question asked before CP and Tony had to leave the meeting was how the board envisage the various groups remaining at QPR for the foreseeable future, particularly so if we do not go up either for this or next season? GP responded by saying that as far as he is concerned he is here for the foreseeable future, that he only wants to do what is right for the club, and AC reiterated that the people in the Monaco groups have invested because of their trust in him and so he cannot see any reason as to why they would wish to pull out. AOB Season tickets and future ideas With Tony and CP having departed we then moved onto a couple of other specific issues with the first one being the season ticket/matchday ticket prices. We presented to GP and AC a document that the Trust had put together containing a number of proactive marketing ideas relating to this whole matter. The suggestion was for GP and AC to have a look at it all, for GP to liaise with Mike Pink at the commercial and marketing department, and also with Jenny Elliott, the box office manager, because they will be the people that will need to decide upon the feasibility of such ideas, and for us all to have a little chat about it in a month’s time or so. To view the documents (there are 2, one is suggested ideas for season tickets/matchday prices and the other is a doc with suggested student schemes) click on the links on the homepage from where the link for this report was posted. We welcome any feedback on this. GG also handed GP and AC a copy each of a Goodwood racecourse members’ booklet containing information on reciprocal events. The suggested idea of QPR looking into a similar reciprocal basis relating to other sporting events has been mentioned within the season tickets document as an idea to think about to give season ticket holders some kind of extra benefit. Football league letter The old chestnut of the football league letter, sent to the old board back in March 2002, in which it was apparently stated that in order to retain its membership of the FL, QPR needed to come out of administration by the time the fixture list came out, was raised, with TS asking GP if he would give the Trust permission to go to the football league, informing them that the supporters trust had the permission of the club to allow it to publish this letter on their website, thus clearing up the matter once and for all? GP said he would be happy to give us permission, said he hadn’t seen the letter himself, TS assured him it did exist, and so he is going to sign a letter to the effect asking the FL to allow us to do this. Fans Forum We asked if there were any update on this since our last meeting, TS pointed out that it was part of the club’s customer charter, and GP informed he would speak to Phil Harris and get something arranged for before Christmas. Ian Holloway The final question to be asked related to Ian Holloway, and if there were any news on a new contract for him? GP refused to be drawn on the subject and just said that Ian Holloway is the manager, and that any talks of new contracts would occur as and when. Summary We would like to thank Gianni Paladini, Antonio Caliendo and Chris Pennington for their time. The meeting lasted for over two and a half hours and was based on a part formal/part informal structure. Whilst there remain unanswered questions, we do feel that it was most certainly a worthwhile meeting and we hope that what we have reported on has been of interest to members and the fanbase in general alike. We are conscious that there are many on-pitch issues to be discussed but with time so scarce we opted to pursue the off-pitch matters that the Trust feels required flagging during the time that we had. We will though continue to push for a fans forum at which there will be plenty of opportunity for all kinds of issues to be discussed with GP and relevant club personnel. CP reminded us he has now been with the club for a year and stated that he was sleeping soundly at night for the first time in ages. He accepted that the club’s £9 million turnover meant it was not a particularly large business and appeared anxious to avoid falling into the trap of spending money as if it were a company with a larger turnover. It will be interesting to see if CP delivers the 2005 accounts on time (as promised by GP at our two meetings now) and with the exception of the Paye arrears, CP answered all our questions, and more, without having to research. Regarding the situation of a potential new ground, we are pursuing a meeting with the local authority, they have been frustratingly slow in getting back to us, but we will persevere with this. http://www.qpr1st.co.uk/documents/GandAminutes.doc - -
QPR 1st Report on QPR Holdings Limited AGM report
July 15, 2005
Held at The Blue & White Club on 6 July 2005 at 3.00 pm By Geoff Gibbs The top table consisted of Bill Power (Chairman), Gianni Paladini (Director), Mark Devlin (CEO), Kevin McGrath (Director), Chris Pennington (Company Secretary & Chief Financial Officer), Antonio Caliendi (for Barnaby Holdings), Gualtiero Trucco (for Warnock LLC)
Although the meeting was notionally chaired by Bill Power it was generally ran by Kevin McGrath who commenced by apologising that the accounts to 31 May 2004 were delivered late and acknowledged that this was despite promises having been made at the previous AGM where he said accounts would be ready by the end of 2004. He went on to state the current year’s accounts to 31 May 2005 were on schedule to be completed by the end of 2005 and hoped that the next AGM would take place in January 2006. It was explained that Gianni Paladini is now a Director and his wife Olga, who previously represented his interests, had stood down. He then went on to state that, despite the success of achieving promotion in 2003/04, from a business perspective the financial year ended 31 May 2004 was disastrous. He emphasised that the accounts covered a period when the old executive team was in place and there were now considerably less people employed by the club who were collectively doing a lot more work than previously. Kevin and Chris both said that the draft accounts to 31 May 2005 were indicating a loss of £2.5m. In the current year to 31 May 2006 the recently prepared budgets had been drawn up on the basis that the club would break even. However, in reality a loss of somewhere between £500k to £1m is anticipated unless the club have a good cup run or some other similar windfall. When asked how the Club was going to sustain these ongoing losses, it was suggested this would be achieved through new money from the Directors. Chris Pennington was asked whether he considered the Company insolvent and he said no as the auditors were satisfied that it was able to keep trading for the foreseeable future and they had ratified the going concern note made in the Directors’ report. Kevin went on to say that in five years it was anticipated the Company should experience regular profit but all this money would be ploughed into the Club. One advantage of the club making a profit would be its likely exemption from Corporation Tax due to its substantial losses in the past. A question was asked about whether the Club was up-to-date with the repayments due on the ABC loan and it was explained that these were on schedule. Once the loan has been running for five years, ABC have a right to increase the interest rate. However, if they do, the Club have a right to repay the loan refinance. Otherwise this loan is scheduled to run for its original ten-year period. It was confirmed there were no exit fees arising after ten years on the loan but it is likely that such fees would be payable if the loan was repaid early. A question was asked in relation to Chris Wright’s old shares and Bill Power said they were sold to him with any extra proceeds being redirected to the Club. Kevin McGrath mentioned that in the current year there would be a big jump in TV revenue to over £1m due to the new Sky deal. In addition, there may be an extra £400k payable for sale of fixture lists, but this was currently in dispute. A question was asked in relation to David Davies’ redundancy and the substantial amount of £95,000 paid to him. Bill Power said it was like cutting his arm off to pay him as much as 1p, but faced with the situation that DD could have stayed in his position, the Club would then have had to carefully engineer disciplinary proceedings. Typically this process would take nine months throughout which DD would have had to be paid his normal salary. It was explained that the payoff was the best solution to a bad situation and would enable the Club to go forward under the new management. The Resolutions on the AGM Notice were all noted and carried almost unanimously. The floor was then opened for any other business. The first question was in relation to Gino but it was explained that he left at the end of the season and had now signed a contract with Nottingham Forest. A question was asked about the availability of the ex-Dairy site at White City and it was confirmed that Kevin McGrath had made initial enquiries and would follow these up. It was reiterated that the unique selling point of QPR was its location and it was appreciated that if they were to move to a new stadium, it must not be far from the current site if the atmosphere and support were to be maintained. Ian Holloway arrived at 3.30 p.m. and joined the top table. A question was asked in relation to Wasps. Bill Power replied that he handled the negotiations with Chris Wright himself and appreciated it appeared that QPR were the patsies in the deal and the outcome and negotiations were a one way street in Wasps favour. Bill went on to explain that the Wasps contract originally drafted by DD was not worth a penny and was full of holes. Although in terms of counter claim it was valued at £1.5m, this was only as a result of the Club attempting to maximise its situation from a negotiating point of view. Bill stated that the outcome was the best that could be obtained and Wasps would not be coming back. A question was asked in relation to the number of season tickets sold. This was answered unspecifically; it was stated the numbers had dropped but no actuals were given. Ian Holloway was asked about the new players. Simon Royce we are already familiar with and therefore needed no introduction. Ian Evatt was introduced to the Club via Gianni who had previously dealt with him in his agent’s capacity at Derby. There had been a corrupt situation there, which precipitated his move to Chesterfield and Gianni had travelled abroad to meet the player to finalise the deal. Tommy Doherty- Ian described him as a “pit bull justice enforcer”. Stefan Moore- He had really impressed Ian in training and had the ability to chase down paper bags from the air. Ian went on to explain that only two seasons ago Dean Sturridge scored 21 goals in 22 games and to all intents and purposes, was a new player. He thought that Dominic Shimmin, acquired from Arsenal at the end of last season, was the most exciting prospect he had seen for a long time and couldn’t wait to get his hands on him. The meeting then descended into farce with references to Gary Glitter by Kevin McGrath and Ian responding with a Michael Jackson joke. Sam Parkin had not been purchased by the Club as his price was too high and similarly if Richard Langley returned he would only have been offered half his Cardiff wages and therefore this situation would be a non-starter. A question was asked in relation to the new training ground and was answered by Kevin McGrath who said there was a new lease in existence at a fixed rental but in due course the Club intended to make an offer to purchase the training ground currently owned by Imperial College. The benefits of the new training ground are it’s modern facilities (on which Chelsea had spent a small fortune) and that that all the QPR teams would be “under one roof”. There was a question from the floor inquiring whether the supporters could get involved in the purchase of the ground but this was not really answered. Ian Holloway went on to explain his ideas about buying young, promising players and compared that with the policies of the past i.e. with the purchase of an over 30 Mike Sherron. It was summed up that Chris Wright had been very naive and believed what he was being told by the authorities to whom he had delegated the running of the Club. Similarly, he considered the large number of long contracts handed out to young trainees in the light of the Bosnan ruling was an understated source of the financial difficulties the Club had experienced leading up to Administration. Ian finished by hinting about further signings by saying “I can’t say anything at the moment but you will be so proud soon”. From the writer’s point of view Ian’s body language was good and he was very consistent in everything he said, in particular about not throwing the kids in at the deep end, which he had to do at Burnley last year. To sum up, there were a lot of questions unanswered at the AGM and the Trust will attempt to delve in to the specifics at our regular meetings at the Club. Unlike the 2004 AGM the top table were not slow this time in openly criticising the previous administrations. We will have some idea if this criticism is justified when the results for the current year to 31 May 2005 are published. If they arrive before the end of 2005 and are in line with Chris Pennington’s expectations, then this will at least be a step in the right direction. Overall it was an enjoyable meeting to attend but get the feeling that this is probably as a result of Ian getting good at dealing with the public and making his audience laugh out loud, he really must have a future in motivational or after dinner speaking. Geoff Gibbs - QPR1st Steering Group http://www.qpr1st.co.uk/main/newsarticle.asp?id=14
Dave's QPR
2004 AGM Report
Yesterday saw the QPR Holdings PLC AGM and as ever it was an interesting meeting. Below is a report from the meeting written by Crash and posted on the qpr.org message board. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Bring back Blackburn I say, at least we could have someone to loathe :-)
Todays AGM was well attended by the usual suspects, at the top table were: Chris Pennington - Finance David Anderson - company secretary Kevin McGrath - Chairman of plc Bill Power - Chairman of QPR Mark Devlin - CEO Azeem Malik - Director representing Moorbound Limited The motions were all passed, including the one to make the plc a Limited company. The votes were carried by 98-99%, only after Kevin had phoned Chris Wright to persuade him to change his mind - he originally was going to vote against the motion to allow the board of directors to sell the 30million shares they are holding. Kevin answered most of the questions and was an excellent chairman. Kevin resigned as acting Chairman of the plc at the end of the meeting and now bp is Chairman of both the limited company and QPR. It was stated that the board will sell the shares to anyone and you can expect a share scheme to be announced whereby fans can purchase shares at 6.5p. The big surprise for me was that Ross Jones attended, which I have to take my hat off to and he answered many questions about the financial dealings that had occurred in 2002-2003. However, he still held the GOT party line. He stated when challenged that there was no other option but to take the ABC loan as the league were about to shut us down. However, a previous Director from the floor challenged him that a loan of 6% interest was on offer at the time. Ross said that if that was true the club could sue Stoy Hayward, the Administrators. Then Kevin stated that Stoy are now acting as agents of ABC. Watch this space as hopefully the Board are going to do something about this. Ross then offered to sell his shares to anyone who wanted them for 6.5p, he would take 3p and would give 3.5p to the club - a marvelous jesture if taken up. Giani stated that Holloway wasn't at the AGM as he had sent him and his familiy on a holiday to Capri. He said if he will send him to Capri everytime we have a result like we did against Crystal Palace. Harold Winton was asked about moneys owing to the club, and he quite rightly got very upset and explained that the problem was due to the previous Board and was going to be resolved with the new Board. When you consider what the Wintons have put into the club, thought the question was a disgrace. Anyway, later on Harold got back up and gave a good rallying cry and said we would win promotion this season and implored fans to take a bet as the odds at the momment are so good!! The Board of Directors have provided between 3-3.5 Million to Holloway to keep our team in mid table. A long time was spent explaining how money is needed to get promotion. When we went down from the old 1st division players expenses over 7Million, so that puts it into perspective. The club needs to raise 2Million to break even and the Monaco deal is still in negotiation, but likely to be scaled down. It was confirmed that Binatone gave the club 70,000 first season, 80,000 second and 80,000 the third. They pay for their own box. Giani is looing to sign another shirt deal for a large amount. It was stated that the Fulham deal netted the club 330,000 profit, which is much hgher than we would have realised if Wasps were our tennants. The Wasps situation is being persued by the Board. Chris Wright is refussing to give his shares away and back to the club. 180k is the highest basic salary one of our players is being paid. Mark Devlin was going to investigate why fans could not get through to the box office this morning. He stated that all season tickets have been posted from somewhere up north (so the Bush post office flooding is not an issue). If anyone hasn't got their season ticket by Friday then they are to phone the box office and they will arrange a duplicate to be picked up on Saturday. The farce about the stewards was talked about. Mark said it was unadvisable to change the steward and catering company's at the end of the season as it does not give enough time. The stewarding company is going to bus people down from Manchester (they steward Man U) and it was the local council that is putting restrictions on QPR. Mark is expecting that the busing of stewards down will satisfy the local council, faxed them the details this morning and awaiting their reply. he is expecting to resume general sale of tickets.
http://www.queensparkrangersfc.com/newsaugust5.htm
BOARDROOM BLUES
AGM ON 4 AUGUST [2004]- INTRODUCTION
Kevin McGrath, the chairman of the plc and of today's AGM, began his overview by saying that these are turbulent times for QPR. In spite of the success on the field there are still severe financial problems, which culminated in the resignations of Paul English, David Davies, Nick Blackburn, Ross Jones and Samantha Taylor. The new board has only had hands-on responsibility for a couple of months.
....Kevin McGrath then introduced the other directors and staff on the stage.
Azeem Malik is a director who represents Moorbound Ltd which in turn represents Gianni Paladini's business interest in QPR. Paladini has "boundless enthusiasm" for QPR and, having put some £650k into the club, is the largest single investor for several years. McGrath said Paladini has a fantastic knowledge of the game, and that it is a privilege to have him on the team at QPR.
Mark Devlin has returned to QPR as Chief Executive after helping reduce Swindon FC's losses from £3m to £300,000. He is "a QPR man" with inside knowledge both of QPR and of running a club in very difficult circumstances.
Bill Power, the chairman of the football club, joined the board after buying some 3m shares and bought a further 1m shares last week. McGrath said: "Bill has the potential to be the best chairman here since Jim Gregory, and I hope he's still chairman when he's 65."
David Anderson is a chartered accountant and the company secretary of QPR Holdings plc. He has put a huge amount of time and effort into the accounts, all on a voluntary basis.
Chris Pennington is not a director but has stepped in to work on the finances following the departure of Paul English, the old Finance Director.
Kevin McGrath made a short personal statement himself, explaining that he feels very proud and privileged to be on the board. He announced that at the end of the meeting he would be remaining a director but standing down as Acting Chairman of the plc and would be replaced by Bill Power. The club only needs one chairman, especially now that it is becoming a private company rather than a plc.
http://www.boardroomblues.co.uk/agmintroduction.htm
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