The secured loan is the ?15m taken out to develop the Jarrold stand and repay some unsecured debt. It is secured against future season ticket sales and is a loan just like a tandard mortgage type loan.
The unsecured loans can also be bank loans but this time the bank does not have security in terms of assets they can demand the club sell to repay should it become necessary. Instead they charge a higher interest rate to cover the increased risk and are more likely to foreclose (demand immediate repayment) if they got the jitters over the club's financial future. This is what happened to Chase as I understand it. The ?1.1M from the hotel deal has gone to the bank to repay part of the unsecured loan of ?3.5m to build the infill stand.
Say the near ?20m debt was actually ?19.5m then this could be broken down as follows:
?15m secured loan i.e. mortgage
?3.5m unsecured loan now down to ?2.4m
?1m from other sources such as the directors or private investors etc.
I would estimate the club's debt is probably now around ?18 - ?18.5m and this is not a problem as the vast majority of it is mortgage style and the club said, at the time it was taken out, that this can be financed by the club being a mid-table championship level club.
Posted By: scrimmage, Oct 1, 14:22:29
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