Kieran Maguire shares bold verdict on £250m, 20-year Tottenham development
Tottenham may not have to repay their huge new £250million loan in full for another 20 years.
That is according to finance guru and Football Insider columnist Kieran Maguire, speaking exclusively after it was confirmed that Spurs had enacted the refinancing on 28 May.
The borrowing, first reported by US outlet Global Capital, will be used to cover the cost of another £175m loan taken out via the Covid Corporate Financing Facility last June.
The original loan was scheduled to be returned in March but Spurs elected to rollover repayment weeks before joining the now-scrapped European Super League.
The new £250m sum was raised through the sale of private placements made through the Bank of America.
Maguire explains that this a long-term refinancing, the main benefit of which is that Spurs can spread the cost out over a number of years or perhaps even decades.
He told Football Insider correspondent Adam Williams: "Effectively what they've done is issue long-term IOUs to two lenders at relatively low-interest rates.
"These will be interest-only arrangements, so they won't have to be repaid for probably at least a decade.
"The benefit from Spurs' point of view is A) they no longer have the Bank of England [via CCFF] in their hair and B) they know exactly how much they've got to pay out.
"What will happen in all probability is that when these loan notes are due for repayment, they'll find another lender and kick it down the road for another 10 years.
"This sort of arrangement is very common in business."