Kieran Maguire: Southampton owners have just authorised £8m ‘cash injection’ as paperwork submitted
The £8million “cash injection” authorised by Southampton owners Sport Republic is likely to be used to cover operational costs.
That is the view of finance guru Kieran Maguire, speaking exclusively to Football Insider about the latest news from behind the scenes at St Mary’s.
An update filed with Companies House on 30 December shows that Sport Republic, the company which bought the Saints in January last year, have issued £8m worth of shares.
It is the fourth such share issue in the last 12 months, with the total injected in the form of equity during that period amounting to £28m.
Maguire explained that the purpose of the investment is probably to cover losses on a day-to-day level at the Premier League’s bottom-placed side.
“Sports Republic issuing shares is probably for their day-to-day cash considerations,” he told Football Insider’s Adam Williams.
“If we take a look at their numbers, they did not have a particularly successful 2020-21. The club at an operational level lost £13m, although that is substantially lower than the £73m from the previous season.
“With that in mind, it looks like this is what we are seeing from many owners at present. This is an operational injection to cover the day-to-day losses being incurred.
“As far as the club are concerned, their wages were 72 per cent of income in 2020-21 and 90 per cent in 2019-20. Both of those years were impacted by Covid.
“It was a fair but unspectacular season in 2021-22. Therefore, the opportunity for growth of revenue through a higher league position won’t have significantly materialised.“
In other news, ex-Premier League referee exposes major Southampton blunder as James Ward-Prowse footage analysed.