Yorkshire announce profit for the first time since 2009
Tuesday 1 March 2016 08:29, UK
Yorkshire have announced a profit for the first time since 2009 in their end-of-year financial results.
The county champions published their results for the year ending December 31, 2015, which saw after-tax profit of £368,000 for the year, with an increase in total income of £8.4m - up from £7.3m in 2014.
Income from the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) was up £200,000 to £2.4m, thanks to the Headingley club's development of England players.
The success of those international cricketers did contribute to rising costs at the club, which were up £1m from 2014 to £7.8m, with the annual players' wage bill rising by £358,000.
Elsewhere, the records showed a £700,000 grant from the ECB towards the installation of new floodlights.
With executive chairman Colin Graves becoming ECB chairman in March 2015, Yorkshire also had to become financially independent from him, refinancing his loans and so refinanced some of the club's debt.
A statement on the club's website said: "The Graves family trusts, which are entirely independent from Colin Graves in his personal capacity, have advanced loans of £18.9m, which has allowed the previous loans from Mr Graves, the Graves family trusts and Leeds City Council to be repaid.
"Leeds City Council, after reviewing the actual cost of interest that the council had incurred in servicing the debt, which demonstrated that the cost to the council of the loan had been fully met by the club, accepted £6.5m in settlement of the £7.4m capital outstanding on the loan.
"As a result of the refinancing, we reduced the club's annual interest bill by £300k per year and there are no scheduled capital repayments until 2019."
The club's director of finance, Paul Hudson, added: "We have made further progress in 2015 and to report an annual profit for the first time since 2009 is a significant step forward.
"It is gratifying that turnover in all areas has increased consistently over the past three years and we expect this trend to continue in 2016.
"The successful completion of the club's refinancing was a watershed and we are confident that the existing debt is now at a manageable level. The club is in a stronger financial position than it has been at any time in recent years."
