Peterborough United chairman Darragh MacAnthony will take back control of the League One club after buying most of the shares he sold to Canadian duo Dr Jason Neale and Randy Thompson in March 2018.
Peterborough also announced that a long-term loan agreement had been reached with Old Kent Road Financial Loan Adminco Ltd (OKR), which Neale and Thompson co-founded. The pair have since stepped down from their roles on the board of directors at Peterborough.
“I am pleased to announce that after lengthy negotiations we have signed a long-term agreement with OKR Financial in respect of all debts owed to it by Peterborough United Football Club,” said MacAthony. “Is this something I have been working on for almost 10 months and at no stage, unlike clickbait internet articles designed to destabilize our club, have I ever been concerned about the future financial health of the football club or about making a deal that works for all parties?
“My job as chairman of the club is to ensure that we live within our means, reduce our debts in a sensible and sustainable way while at the same time having a competitive team that comes out every week to put smiles on our faces with what they deliver. on the pitch.”
Although Neale and Thompson co-founded OKR, they bought their 50 percent stake in Peterborough through a separate company called Kelgary Sports and Entertainment.
They paid MacAnthony £2.5m ($3.2m) for the shares and loaned the club a further £3m, but their business relationship ended abruptly last year when OKR’s investors accused Neale of making unauthorized loans from OKR to Kelgary and other businesses. Neale denies any wrongdoing but he was forced out of OKR and recovery agents were brought in to chase those loans, including those made to the stadium company subsidiary of Kelgary and Peterborough. Thompson continues to be a managing partner at the fund.
At the end of last year, OKR sent a demand to the club for repayment of its loan, which accrued compound interest at an annual rate of 18 percent, and earlier this year it seized the Peterborough United shares owned by Neale and Thompson when Canadian. a court ruled that Kelgary owed the fund $24.7m (£14.5m).
That ruling came shortly after OKR placed the stadium subsidiary, London Road Peterborough Properties Ltd, into receivership. Since then, the club’s rent for playing at the venue goes directly to the foundation and local council, the latter as part of repayment for historical rent.
Peterborough’s London Road home is owned by London Road Peterborough Properties Ltd (Paul Harding/Getty Images)
According to the club’s most recent set of accounts, which were filed at Companies House at the end of June, OKR’s claim was in excess of £7m. The club disputed this amount and the accounts reveal that the club made a payment of £1.1m in 2022.
But the accounts also noted that OKR’s loan is secured by a charge “on the company’s assets and the right to appoint an administrator in the event of default”.
A month after those accounts were made public, Thompson wrote to OKR’s investors to tell them the fund did not have enough cash to pay them a dividend for the fourth quarter in a row. He added that litigation against Neale was ongoing and the fund’s “recovery team” was in talks with Peterborough United over its debt.
“Although this negotiation was expected to close in June with a first major payment in July, final agreements are still being drafted at the time of writing,” he wrote.
“The fund has put the stadium under administration order and we still have the ability to do the same with the club if we choose to take this route.”
When asked by The Athletics in July if this threat from management was real, Thompson said: “The fund knows how much it is owed and requests that the amount be paid in full.
The process of acknowledging that amount and executing a plan forced the foundation to go to the next step on the stadium.
“However, I think we all want this to be amicable and in a way that the investors are whole and the supporters of PUFC are left with a financially stable club.”
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MacAnthony, who bought the club in 2006 at the age of 30, responded by saying Peterborough “strongly disputes” the amount of money OKR claims it is owed and denied there was any possibility of the club falling into administration.
The US-based Irish businessman also said he was “confident that cooler heads will prevail, current very advanced negotiations will lead to an agreement in the coming weeks, and the club will emerge stronger and have a very successful 2023-2024 season”.
While the negotiations took longer than he would have hoped, it now appears that he has reached an agreement with OKR on its debt and bought back a significant portion of Kelgary’s shares.
The first sign of this success came at the end of last month, when Neale and Thompson were formally removed as directors of the club and confirmation of the share purchase is likely to be imminent.
It should also be noted that MacAnthony has so far fulfilled his prediction of a successful season as Peterborough are fourth in League One, one point behind Bolton Wanderers in second place, are in the last 16 of the EFL Trophy and host Leeds United. in the third round of the FA Cup in January.
Like many EFL clubs, Peterborough carry significant amounts of debt but they have a strong history of developing and selling players. The next star of their crop is likely to be England Under-20 defender Ronnie Edwards and is also a potential gainer from any move former striker Ivan Toney could make next year. Peterborough would be due 10 per cent of any fee Brentford negotiate for the England international.
That money would help Peterborough clear the debts they took on to get through the pandemic and potentially enable MacAnthony to buy back the club’s London Road stadium.
(Joe Giddens/PA Images via Getty Images)
