CELTIC released their interim accounts yesterday for the half year to the end of December 2017.
These rather splendid financial figures showed that the club had increased revenue to £71.5m, saw the profit from trading jump to £23.7m, revealed the profit before tax to be up at £19.5m and the profit after tax to be up to £17.4m.
In each category there was a year on year improvement.
The Celtic chairman Ian Bankier, while delighted with the performance on and off the park in this period, did admit that the next six months will not be quite as spectacular. There will be less games at Celtic Park and no Champions League revenue in this period. The Europa League, by comparison is chicken feed.
“Looking forward, and entirely in line with our trading seasonality, we do not expect the same level of financial performance in the second half of the year. In this period we will play fewer home fixtures and revenue from European competition will be lower. Our key objectives for the remainder of the year are to win the SPFL Premiership, secure the Scottish Cup and build towards the European qualifiers in the summer,” Bankier observed.
Makes sense. However he also wrote about the player trading in that six months period up to 31 December 2017.
“During the period we secured the permanent registrations of Olivier Ntcham and Kundai Benyu, and the temporary registration of Patrick Roberts. Our profit on disposal of intangible assets of £0.5m (2016: £2.0m) largely reflects the transfer of the registrations of Gary Mackay Steven and Saidy Janko. Subsequently, during the January 2018 transfer window, we have invested further by acquiring the permanent registrations of experienced German Bundesliga defender Marvin Compper, exciting young Scottish talents Lewis Morgan and Jack Hendry and the temporary registrations of sought after midfielder Charly Musonda and goalkeeper Scott Bain,” he stated.
However one figure curiously missing from the this is the windfall money from the sale of Virgil van Dijk from Southampton to Liverpool at the end of December. This transaction, although agreed and announced late in December was not officially registered until the window opened in January.
— Virgil van Dijk (@VirgilvDijk) December 27, 2017
This means that Celtic have the windfall van Dijk millions up their sleeves.
The sell on clause is believed to be 15% of the profit that Southampton made on the deal. So that means that Celtic are in line for to record a windfall of £9.37m in the next financial update in six months time.
Hopefully, that money will come in very handy for Brendan Rodgers in the summer!
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And the great podcasts keep on coming. Have a look at this…
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— Paul John Dykes (@PaulDykes) February 9, 2018
From Monday morning on The Celtic Star you will be able to read a daily diary from Lisbon Lion. Jim will be opening up on Monday previewing the Zenit match and you will be able to comment and join in the conversation with a Lisbon Lion.
