Section:GDN 1N PaGe:36 Edition Date:190803 Edition:01 Zone:S Sent at 2/8/2019 18:09 cYanmaGentaYellowb
- The Guardian Saturday 3 August 2019
(^36) Financial
£29m
The net debt of Goals Soccer Centres
at the end of 2018. Its market
valuation was £20.5m in March
Sean Farrell
Royal Bank of Scotland is to hand the
government more than £1bn as part of
a bumper windfall for shareholders,
but the payout was overshadowed by
the bank’s admission that it would
miss its profi t targets next year.
The taxpayer-backed bank said it
would pay a total of £1.7bn in divi-
dends for the fi rst half of its fi nancial
year, partly funded by the sale of a
stake in a Saudi Arabian bank. The
UK government, which owns 62% of
RBS after bailing it out in the fi nan-
cial crisis, will receive about £1.05bn.
RBS reported a 48% increase in
fi rst-half pretax profi t to £2.7bn and
the bank’s £2bn net profi t was its best
result for more than a decade.
But investors homed in on the
bank’s gloomy outlook as it high-
lighted continuing tough market
conditions and economic and political
Mark Sweney
Mike Ashley has been dealt a fresh
blow as Goals Soccer Centres, the
struggling fi ve-a-side football pitch
operator in which he has a signifi cant
stake, is to delist from the London
Stock Exchange after revealing an
accounting scandal stretching back
at least a decade.
Goals, which is 19% owned by
Ashley’s Sports Direct, has uncovered
“improper behaviour” by a number
of individuals in the company in the
preparation of its fi nancial accounts
dating back to at least 2010.
The company has been in crisis
since March, when trading in its shares
on London’s junior Aim market was
suspended after it uncovered a poten-
tial £12m unpaid tax bill.
Yesterday , Goals said the new
accounting scandal meant it would
be unable to fi le its fi nancial results
by the end of September. Failure to
meet the deadline means the company
will be delisted.
uncertainty over Brexit. RBS said it was
“very unlikely” to reach its targets of
12% return on shareholders’ funds
and reducing costs to less than half of
revenue next year.
The bank said margins would
continue to be compressed by
competition for mortgage business,
which has prompted some lenders to
quit the market , and low interest rates.
Bad debts rose by £182m to £323m,
pushed up by problems at a small
number of business customers. The
bank’s shares fell 6.5% to 202p.
RBS’s chairman, Howard Davies,
said the bank expected a further period
The news will infuriate Ashley,
who has been at loggerheads with the
company’s board for months over the
accounting errors as his multi million-
pound stake in the business remains
in limbo. Goals had a market value of
£20.5m when trading in its shares was
suspended in March.
Sports Direct, which fi rst invested
in Goals in 2015, is facing fi nancial
diffi culties of its own, with the Belgian
authorities imposing a €674m (£6 17m)
tax bill on the business.
Goals, which employs 700 people
across 45 UK sites and four in the US,
said the business continue d to perform
strongly, with revenues up 11.5% in the
UK and 14.5% in the US so far this year.
This has given the company’s lend-
ers the confi dence to confi rm they will
continue to back the business, keep-
ing existing debt facilities in place to
allow it to trade. Goals had net debt of
£29m at the end of 2018.
In June, Goals appointed Deloitte to
look at selling the business. The fi rm
is also struggling with the turnover of
management: in May, its chief exec-
utive, Andy Anson , was appointed
head of the British Olympic Associ-
ation after just over a year in the job.
of uncertainty as concerns mount
about the global economy and the
prospect of the UK leaving the Euro-
pean Union without a deal.
“The subdued outlook for inter-
est rates is aff ecting all banks, global
economic growth prospects are less
favourable, trade tensions between
China and the US continue to be
strained ... and that’s also aff ecting
market confi dence,” Davies said.
RBS had no news about its search for
a new boss after the chief executive,
Ross McEwan, announced his depar-
ture in April and accepted the top job
at National Australia Bank.
RBS pays out
£1bn to state
- but future
looks gloomy
Mike Ashley-linked
fi ve-a-side football
fi rm to delist after
accounts scandal
▲ RBS’s shares fell 6.5% to 202p PHOTOGRAPH: SIMON DAWSON/BLOOMBERG/GETTY IMAGESРЕЛИЗ ПОДГОТОВИЛА ГРУППА "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS