Arsenal set for £30m windfall from Highbury development
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Arsenal set for £30m windfall from Highbury development with club expected to announce record profits
Something to smile about: Arsenal are expected to reveal another rise in profits
Arsenal are expected to announce annual figures that will leave many rival Premier League clubs green with envy.
The Gunners are due to announce new record profits - and that they have paid off all the debts on their Highbury Square development six months early.
That means the club can expect a £30million windfall from selling off around 90 apartments, while the cost of paying off the Emirates Stadium development is comfortably covered by income.
The rosy financial picture for the year up to June 2010 will please some fans but may leave others asking why manager Arsene Wenger has been reluctant to strengthen his team with more established stars, particularly among his goalkeepers.
A year ago, Arsenal announced pre-tax profits had risen 24 per cent to £45.5m. Another increase for the year ending June 2010 is expected courtesy of property sales and around a £4m rise in Premier League income to £51.7m and a similar increase in Champions League income to £27.3m.
It is the paying off of the Highbury Square loans that will have delighted the Arsenal hierarchy most however. They were initially forced to extend the bank repayment deadline of April this year to December after the property slump first hit.
Since then the development has prospered and the debt - which once totalled £133m - has now been repaid in full.
That means Arsenal's only debt outstanding is for the Emirates Stadium, which is around the £220-£230m mark costing around £16million a year in interest and to be paid off by 2031.
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only the shareholders will cheer.