John Madjeski....

[PieEater]

The club's debt currently stands at £10million.

Never knew the club was in that amount of debt, did anyone else?

If this includes the debt for building the stadium then I'd say we are in pretty good shape, as this asset is worth much more than £10m. It also means that His Madj has been paid back (or written off against other losses) a large proportion of the original loan.

[strap]

The club's debt currently stands at £10million.

Never knew the club was in that amount of debt, did anyone else?

If this includes the debt for building the stadium then I'd say we are in pretty good shape, as this asset is worth much more than £10m. It also means that His Madj has been paid back (or written off against other losses) a large proportion of the original loan.

The last accounts I have are up to 30th June 05, so do not take into account last year, nor specifically signings such as Lita.

In them, it states we have creditors (amounts falling due within 1 year) of £36.5M. My understanding is that that includes the stadium, hotel, dome etc, but I think excludes the work undertaken at the new training ground.

Of the £36.5M, the breakdown is thus:

Bank loans and overdraft £5.9M
Chairman's loan £23.3M
Accruals, deferred income, et al = the rest

The Chariman's loan is repayable ON DEMAND. Interest is being charged at 1% BELOW HSBC bank base rate on the element loaned to RFC (£6.2M) and NO interest is being charged on the £17M loan to Madejski Stadium Hotel Ltd, (a wholly owned subsidiary of RFC (Holdings) Ltd. The Chairman confirms that it is not his intention to withdraw his support for the Group in the foreseeable future.

Obviously this means JM IS putting money into the club that he may not see again, as he would presumably be able to obtain very decent market rates of interest if he was to invest "normally".

My apologies for my £40M loan comment in previous post, clearly a good bit of that has been paid back or written off, if indeed the original figure was as high as £40M.

So it seems to me, the £10M debt figure being bandied about now could just be the overdraft plus other creditors. Or, it could be (more likely) we have gone a further £4M into the red last year.

As of last year, RFC (holdings) Ltd owes Mr Mad £23.3M plus interest. There is also the matter of £13.2M of other debt a potential buyer will need to take on.

On the plus side - tangible fixed assets totalled £53M. Of this, £33.5M was freehold land and buildings (the Mad Stad?) and £15.8M was in the form of long leasehold property (the hotel?). No dividends were taken last year.

I am no expert in these things, and may have read this incorrectly, but it seems to make sense. Intangible assets (presumably players?) was on the books at £2.7M, which is clearly a very low figure, bearing in mind we might possibly get that for one player.

This info is available from Companies House, so I don't think I've breached any confidences.

So, in nutshell, if you have a spare £50M lying around, give JM a call. Be prepared to raise your initial offer though!

[Royalee]

I think he's playing the game with regards to Sidwell and co, as is Coppell. Nothing to worry about.

[Tilehurst Mike]

http://www.sportinglife.com/football/news/story_get.cgi?STORY_NAME=soccer/06/07/13/SOCCER_Column.html

The above link is also worth a read.

That is a very good article and I hope Mr Madejski pays heed to it.

Refer to articles in todays Express and Mirror. Did he really expect anything else? Welcome to the real world of the Premiership!

[Alan Titchmarsh]

The news on BBC Berkshire this AM said that JM has been on Japanese telly 'asking' for any parties intersted in investing in the club to step forward.

Also it was said that JM has been in discussions with two organisation with regard to investment/buying.

What with his comment that the next Reading chairman could come from the Far East and the supposed appearance on Japanese telly plus the sudden visibility over there due to signing a leading Korean international perhaps we may soon be a sub division of someone like SONY or TOSHIBA!!!!

[jimmy_jive]

I think he's playing the game with regards to Sidwell and co, as is Coppell. Nothing to worry about.

Dont agree with this at all,

Yes - Intangible assets is players

[Wycombe Royal]

Whatever his intentions are with this interview you can be assured that Madejski will have a plan behind all this. He would not have done this he thought it would cause any demotivation within the club or unsettling anyone and I would guess he has spoken to them in private about it.

Whether he sells up or not the club will continue and will still be here for us to support. 16 years ago we would not have said that.

[Royalee]

Whatever his intentions are with this interview you can be assured that Madejski will have a plan behind all this. He would not have done this he thought it would cause any demotivation within the club or unsettling anyone and I would guess he has spoken to them in private about it.

Whether he sells up or not the club will continue and will still be here for us to support. 16 years ago we would not have said that.

Spot on.

[Bournemouth Royal]

http://www.sportinglife.com/football/news/story_get.cgi?STORY_NAME=soccer/06/07/13/SOCCER_Column.html

The above link is also worth a read.

That is a very good article and I hope Mr Madejski pays heed to it.

Refer to articles in todays Express and Mirror. Did he really expect anything else? Welcome to the real world of the Premiership!

And in today's Mail so maximum coverage has now been given in the UK.
How does this affect any new signings?
Will players feel that we lack ambition or the opposite that we are striving to have a bigger financial input?

I had a feeling this might come to the fore when it was announced that we would adopt a "wait and see" policy regarding stadium development.
Nobody could ever criticise Mr Mad for wanting to get out but I don't really want him lamenting about Abramovich raising the bar on transfers-surely we did the same in the lower divisions when we were at the top of the spending list meaning that other clubs were unable to compete in purchasing power.
BTW would the stadium name be changed?

[Kitson12]

From The Guardian this morning:

Reading's chairman John Madejski is hoping that this week's signing of the South Korea midfielder Seol Ki-hyun from Wolverhampton will promote interest in the far east and help attract a buyer for the Premiership's newest club.

Madejski is looking to sell after conceding that he cannot afford the cost of competing in the top flight despite having a personal fortune of over £325m. "I would not be at all surprised if the next owner of the club is from the Far East," said Madejski, who has invested £50m since buying Reading in 1990. "I would love to stay but I just cannot afford it."

Madejski, the founder of Auto Trader magazine, lived in Malaysia in the mid-90s and is hoping the club's £1.5m signing will be money well spent in more ways than one."I know from my time there that there are plenty of very wealthy people in that part of the world," he said.

"If there is some person out there who has the financial resources and would like to be the chairman of a football club, then they should come and see me.

"I am prepared to let go and clear the way for someone who would like to take up the challenge. I have been doing this for 16 years now and when I came here my goal was to get us into the Premiership. I have achieved that but now it is time for someone else to take up the reins."

WSRL

[Finch Royal]

with people who want to play football and are not just interested in having a bigger car or a bigger house and more and more money.

nICE ONE jOHNNY BOY, IT'S NOT LIKE YOU MONEY MOTIVATED IS IT

Be fair, the points system is awarded to those who spend the most, not the loyal folk.

[royalsteve]

Very interesting article - this shows how how it costs to be a premiership side - if someone like Madjeski is worried about the costs then that says a lot.

We have to be prudent - all we can do is try and model oursleves on Charlton and Bolton and hope that we can establish ourselves. If we get a rich person from the Far East etc then thats all good - but for now we have to live within our means - as it doesnt seem that Madjeski will be here forever....

more like Charlton

[Keith]

I can't believe I read these comments from Madjeski in yesterdays papers.

Why has he decided to make these feelings known at this time? right at the beginning of our first ever season in the top flight. Talk about de-motivation for the club! We might as well start the season with 10 points deducted. As if its not going to be difficult enough already.

Surely he hasn't just realised all this. Any football fan over the age of 6 could have told him everything he has said, which seems to have come as a surprise to him.

And how a money obsessed person like him can accuse footballers of being greedy for wanting to better themselves and have nicer houses and cars etc beggars belief.

And I repeat what I've said before on this forum. If Madjeski does sell up and leave, he will have made far more money than he ever put in.

[RoyalBlue]

Very interesting article - this shows how how it costs to be a premiership side - if someone like Madjeski is worried about the costs then that says a lot.

...

Not really, our Chairman was worried about the costs in League 2!

[bobby1413]

Very interesting article - this shows how how it costs to be a premiership side - if someone like Madjeski is worried about the costs then that says a lot.

...

Not really, our Chairman was worried about the costs in League 2!

Sounds like a good business man with a lot of sense.

Rather than just throwing money at something for a few months and then to find out afterwards that your in the poo, he is carefully watching the finances.

I'd rather have him backing us than anyone else.

[Lower West]

JM is talking sense. After having taken 16 years to get the club this far he doesnt want to see it all go to waste. Take Ballacks wages for example, a single season is over £5m. If we are going to compete then we will need good financial backing from very deep pockets. Chelsea are making the premiership into a non event. Buy who you want when you want.

I turned my back on the premiership 8 years ago and started to watch Reading. It was football as it should be. Now its gone full circle.

[Forbury Lion]

There are plenty of very wealthy Irish people these days

A team of Kevin Doyle's anyone?

The club's debt currently stands at £10million

I suspect John Madejski is the person the club owe this £10m to.

[Lamberts Tipple]

I read it that he was more depressed at the the money that is flashed to lure players. Reading operate a tight wage structure. Sidwell is made what is probably the best wage offer in the history of the club, holds out and is eventually offered what he wants. Meantime another club offer a far higher sum. No way to run a business for such a hard nosed businessman as JM. He doesn't want to compete at this game, but sees that this is the future with all the extra money pumping in to the game.

His statement clarifying his position cuts through the journalistic licence.

[Smoking Kills Dancing Doe]

I knew he wouldn't be able to keep his mouth shut about how much this is all costing him, just incase we'd forgotten. What he's said is the worse possible thing a Chairmen could say imo, why talk down the biggest season in the history of the club?? Also how are these costs so great? What happened to the 18m TV money, we had one of the lowest wage bills in the Championship, I doubt it's gone up that much.

I know the Chairman has done so much for the club, but it does seem sometimes it's always gotta be about him.

As for selling up, to be honest he's no one without the football club, he's not THAT rich or THAT charamastic and has been shuned in the past the art community when he tried to by his way into that. I don't think he'll ever sell.....

[Arch]

I think he's genuinely fearful about what's coming. He's a business man who's always been successful and now he's looking at a subtantial loss with, as he sees it, no chance of making it up. You could literally lose a fortune in the Premiership and I'm sure the big man is uncomfortable with that idea.