Nottingham Forest loan move detailed after Marinakis' £82m show of commitment
Nottingham Forest have paid off in full two loans from Rights and Media Funding Limited amid a focus from owner Evangelos Marinakis on loan conversions.
Documents filed on Companies House, listed as satisfaction of a charge, show that the two loans have been paid off in full. The update comes on the back of news that Greek businessman Marinakis had converted £82 million worth of loans to the club into shares, a move viewed as an indication of his investment in the Reds.
One of the loans to Rights and Media Funding, listed as being created on 15 August 2022, is described as: “First legal mortgage over the freehold land known as land at Holme Road, 24 Colwick Road, 21/23 Colwick Road, training ground - Wilford Lane, land on Scarrington Road, land at Trent Pool, and over the leasehold land known as City Ground and car park.”
The second loan, created on 2 October 2023 on Companies House, is described as: “Freehold land known as land at Holme Road and the nine other properties listed in schedule 1 of the instrument.. All other freehold, leasehold or immovable property which it has at the date of the instrument or may subsequently acquire..”
Another document filed on Companies House shows how Forest have taken out a loan secured on club properties. It is described as being with regard to: “Freehold and leasehold property described as ‘land lying to the north of Holme Road, West Bridgford, Nottingham’ and nine further properties.”
Responding to a question from a supporter on social media with regards to the latter, football finance expert Kieran Maguire said: “Clubs borrow all the time. No indication of size or purpose of loans.”
Marinakis has regularly moved to reduce the club’s debt by converting loans into shares, in a show of commitment to the Reds. Last week, documents filed on Companies House detailed how he had converted an £82m loan to Forest into 8.2 billion 1p shares.
In the near-eight years he has been at the helm at the City Ground, Marinakis has converted large amounts of debt into equity. He converted £11m worth of loans into shares in December 2023, £41m worth of loans into shares in the 2021/22 financial year, a similar conversion of £12m in 2020/21 and more than £20m in 2019/20.
