Chelsea F.C. - Ownership and Finances

Ownership and Finances

Chelsea Football Club was founded by Gus Mears in 1905. After his death in 1912, his descendents continued to own the club until 1982, when Ken Bates bought the club from Mears' great-nephew Brian Mears for £1. Bates bought a controlling stake in the club and floated Chelsea on the AIM stock exchange in March 1996. In July 2003, Roman Abramovich purchased Bates' 29.5% stake in Chelsea Village plc for £60 million and over the following weeks bought out most of the remaining 12,000 shareholders at 35 pence per share, completing a £140 million takeover. Other shareholders at the time of the takeover included the Matthew Harding estate (21%), BSkyB (9.9%) and various anonymous offshore trusts. After passing the 90% share threshold, Abramovich took the club back into private hands, delisting it from the AIM on 22 August 2003. He also took on responsibility for the club's debt of £80 million, quickly paying most of it.

Thereafter, Abramovich changed the ownership name to Chelsea FC plc, whose ultimate parent company is Fordstam Limited, which is controlled by him. Chelsea are additionally funded by Abramovich via interest free soft loans channelled through his holding company Fordstam Limited. The loans stood at £709 million in December 2009, when they were all converted to equity by Abramovich, leaving the club itself debt free, although the debt remains with Fordstam. Since 2008 the club has had no external debt. In November 2012, Chelsea announced a profit of £1.4 million for the year ending 30th June 2012, the first time the club has made a profit under Abramovich's ownership.

Chelsea has been described as a global brand; a 2012 report by Brand Finance ranked Chelsea fifth and valued the club's brand value at US $398 million – an increase of 27% from the previous year, also valuing it at US $10 million more than the sixth best brand, London rivals Arsenal – and gave the brand a strength rating of AA (very strong). In 2012, Forbes magazine ranked Chelsea seventh in their list of the ten most valuable football clubs in the world, valuing the club's brand at £473 million ($761 million). Chelsea are currently ranked sixth in the Deloitte Football Money League with an annual commercial revenue of £225.6 million.

Chelsea's kit has been manufactured by Adidas since 2006, which is contracted to supply the club's kit from 2006 to 2018. The partnership was extended in October 2010 in a deal worth £160 million over eight years. Previously, the kit was manufactured by Umbro (1968–81), Le Coq Sportif (1981–86), The Chelsea Collection (1986–87) and Umbro again (1987–2006). Chelsea's first shirt sponsor was Gulf Air, agreed during the 1983–84 season. The club were then sponsored by Grange Farms, Bai Lin Tea and Simod before a long-term deal was signed with Commodore International in 1989; Amiga, an off-shoot of Commodore, also appeared on the shirts. Chelsea were subsequently sponsored by Coors beer (1995–97), Autoglass (1997–2001) and Emirates Airline (2001–05). Chelsea's current shirt sponsor is Samsung who took over the sponsorship from their mobile division in 2007–08. In 2012 Gazprom became the club's official Global Energy Partner on a three-year sponsorship deal. The club also has a variety of other sponsors and partners, which include Delta Air Lines, Sauber, Audi, Singha, Thomas Cook Sport, BNI, 188BET, EA Sports, Coca Cola, Grand Royal, BNI, Digicel, Dolce & Gabbana, Lucozade Sport and Viagogo.