Positive accounts as Hearts post profit of £623,000 and wipe out net debt

BY ALAN TEMPLE – @CCP_sport

HEARTS have announced a profit of £623,000 for the year ending June 2016 following a third-place finish in their maiden campaign back in the Scottish Premiership and are now debt free.

The club released their accounts to shareholders yesterday ahead of the Jambos’ 110th Annual General Meeting on December 20 – and they made encouraging reading after posting a loss of £888,000 in the 2014/15 figures.

Turnover was up by £2.9 million to £9.9 million, with major factors including the increase in gate receipts (up from £4.1 million to £4.3 million), commercial income (up from £1.3 millon to £2 million), and prize money (£984,000 to £2 million).

Hearts’ net debt of £1.6 million has also been wiped out and the club now boast a positive balance of £2,636,000. This was largely due to more than £4 million worth of non-repayable loans from fans’ group the Foundation of Hearts (FoH) in the previous two years being reclassified as reserves rather than liability in the latest accounts.

A net cash inflow of £1.5 can be mostly attributed to the sale of Osman Sow to Chinese Superleague side Henan Jianye, with the accounts showing Hearts banked £1,019,000 from the January transfer.

Hearts’ profit was despite staff costs rising from £3.7 million to £5.5 million and operating costs increasing from £3.5 million to £4.1 million.

Hearts also spent £195,000 creating a Memorial Garden and the newly opened Hearts Museum at Tynecastle, while £705,000 has so far been spent in the stadium in preparation for the construction of a new main stand.

The full accounts can be found here —> Hearts 2016 Accounts