Stefan Borson: Chelsea owners have bankrolled near-£200m injection

Chelsea could have issued £175million of new shares as part of the transaction for the sale of their women’s team.

That is the view of finance expert Stefan Borson, who exclusively told Football Insider it’s so far unclear whether all of that money makes up the women’s team sale or if it’s just a proportion of that figure.

A Companies House submission on 29 July revealed Chelsea FC Holdings Limited purchased 1,000 new shares worth up to £175million.

The share issue can be backdated to 29 June, meaning the West Londoners received the financial boost one day before the 30 June accounting deadline.

It has emerged Chelsea sold their women’s team to parent company BlueCo on 28 June to potentially circumnavigate the profit and sustainability rules (PSR) last season after they were believed to be close to their allowable losses limit.

Chelsea new shares likely linked to women’s team sale

Borson believes the latest investment is likely to be connected to the purchase of the women’s team.

“It’s difficult to be too precise,” Borson told Football Insider.

“Part of it will be a debt-for-equity swap. They will have put debt into one of the entities. Rather than refinancing the debt with more debt, they have swapped it for equity, effectively cancelling the debt.

“The thing we don’t know is where that £175million has gone in at the top and filtered its way through the group.

“It’s likely they have raised £175million of new cash and that’s because they run at quite a considerable loss as a group.

“We know that over the last three financial years at an operating level, they have lost over £200million before player sales, so they do need the cash to keep coming in.

“I suspect part of it is also the creation of some kind of transaction with the women’s team.

“The women’s team has effectively been bought out of Chelsea Holdings into an entity called Midco, which is an entity further up their group structure.

“Clearly, there will have had to have been an accounting transaction that will have put a value on the women’s team.

“From an accounting perspective, there will have had to have been a payment paid either in cash or the creation of an inter-company debt between Midco and Chelsea Holdings.

“But we don’t know what that is, it could be £175million or a proportion of that.”

In other news, Newcastle close in on deal for Chelsea star as terms agreed.

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