League Championship side Cardiff City has announced annual losses of £12M "despite spending last season in the Premier League," with the club’s total debt now standing at a "staggering" £174M. Most of the money is owed to Chair Vincent Tan, the Malyasian businessman who purchased 30% of shares in May '10 before increasing that to beyond 90% last year (London GUARDIAN, 2/26). ... The shares of Williams, the only publicly-traded F1 team, "fell to their lowest in more than three years" after former Exec Dir Christian Wolff sold half of his 10% stake.
Williams Grand Prix Holdings Plc shares dropped 8.9% to €13.67 ($15.31) at 11:56am in Frankfurt, the lowest since Aug. '11. The company’s market value fell to €136.7M ($155.22M) (BLOOMBERG, 2/26). ... Ladbrokes reported a 44% drop in pre-tax profits to £37.7M for the year to Dec. 31, "blaming the cost of closing unprofitable high street stores as it struggles amid tightening regulation and increasing online competition."
The bookmaker took a £8.1M hit to profits on Boxing Day -- "its worst football daily loss on record -- when a higher than usual number of favourites won their matches" (FINANCIAL TIMES, 2/26).
