logo
Why have Nottingham Forest taken out an £80m loan from Apollo Management?

Why have Nottingham Forest taken out an £80m loan from Apollo Management?

New York Times4 days ago
Nottingham Forest have taken a loan of £80million ($108m) with Apollo Management, a global asset management company based in New York.
It is the company's first venture into Premier League finance. The three-year loan, which was secured in December 2024, will operate with an interest rate of 8.75 per cent.
Advertisement
For Forest, £55million of the loan was used to refinance an existing debt with Rights and Media Funding Group (RMF) as a potential cost-saving exercise. It is secured against the entirety of the club and its assets, the most significant of which is the City Ground.
It is not an unusual practice for clubs to secure finance in such a manner. In fact, it is a reasonably regular occurrence; fleeting star players aside, a club's most valuable asset tends to be its home, so that's what gets put up as security when large tranches of funding are obtained. But, when it involves a headline figure of such a high number, it might raise some questions among fans.
Which The Athletic attempts to answer here…
Apollo — or Apollo Global Management — is a global asset management company, headquartered in Midtown Manhattan. Founded in 1990, Apollo had, as of the end of 2024, assets under management of $751billion, ranking them as the 28th largest asset management firm in the world, according to the Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute.
Apollo was co-founded by Josh Harris, now a shareholder at Crystal Palace. Harris left Apollo in 2022, though retained a six per cent shareholding in the firm as of April this year.
Naturally, the firm's business is widely diversified, with various companies in operation. Of the £80million loaned to Forest last December, £25m is owed to Apollo Debt Solutions (ADS) BDC (the latter standing for 'Business Development Company'), a subsidiary of the Apollo group. Based on filings by Forest's holding company, NF Football Investments, the remaining £55m is held by Apollo Investment Management Europe, a Luxembourg-based entity.
While this is Apollo's first known direct foray into football, the Financial Times reported this week that the investment firm is in talks to buy a stake in Atletico Madrid.
Advertisement
Which isn't to say the firm is not already active in sport. ADS' loan book includes two term loans, totalling $172million, given to Endeavor, owners of World Wrestling Entertainment and the Ultimate Fighting Championship via their ownership of TKO Group. A further $52m was loaned to TKO earlier this year, while there's another $5m due from Delta 2, a Luxembourg-based company that holds debt for Formula One.
There's an existing link to football too. Also on ADS' list of investments at the end of March was a £40m loan to Sports Invest Holdings Limited, a business set up last May by prominent football advisor, Kia Joorabchian.
Rights and Media Funding Limited is a Macclesfield-based company that lends to the sports and entertainment industries.
RMF loaned Forest £55million in two tranches. First, in August 2022, £45m repayable by July 30 2025, bearing interest at 7.5 per cent plus the Bank of England (BOE) base rate (then 1.75 per cent; now 4.25 per cent), then a further £10m in October 2023, again repayable by July 30 2025, this time bearing interest at 6.45 per cent plus the BOE base rate. Both loans have now been repaid in full and were filed as such on January 6 this year.
Forest aren't the first club to have received funding from RMF, whose most high-profile lending was to Everton before the club's takeover by The Friedkin Group last December. At one stage, that debt sat at £225m, though it was all repaid following the takeover.
As well as Everton, RMF has previously loaned money to West Ham (varying amounts between 2017 and 2020), and a cohort of 11 clubs in Spain. The lender provided €67million in December 2020 in a joint-financing venture that looked to shore up liquidity during the Covid-19 pandemic. In July 2021, RMF loaned Valencia €51m over five years, before organising a separate €20m, over four and a half years, to the Mestalla club in January 2024.
Per RMF's balance sheet at the end of June 2024, the company was owed loans in the region of £288million, the vast majority of which looks to have been amounts due from Everton and Forest. Both clubs are now free of debt to RMF.
The £80million loaned from Apollo to Forest is senior debt, meaning it takes priority when it comes to repayment; in the unlikely event Forest were heading out of business, Apollo would be at the front of the resultant queue.
The loan has a three-year term, due for repayment on December 20 2027, though there is provision for that to be extended a further two years. It incurs 8.75 per cent interest annually or, based on the £80m balance, £7m per year. That was around half Forest's total matchday income in the 2023-24 season (the latest for which we have figures).
Advertisement
£55m of the Apollo loan has been used to repay the amounts due to RMF. Based on most recent interest rates, those RMF loans were incurring £6.4m in annual interest, so this refinancing — now a common occurrence in football — works out cheaper in a sense; applying the Apollo interest rate to £55m gives an annual charge of £4.8m.
Of course, Forest have borrowed above and beyond their previous debt to RMF, taking out a further £25m this time around. It is unclear what the additional funding is to be used for.
It is difficult to read too much into the timing of the loan, beyond the fact that the restructuring of the debt should ultimately reduce costs for the club. With those RMF loans due for repayment at the end of July, it makes sense that the club looked elsewhere — successfully — for cheaper financing.
The club have declined to comment.
Debt has long been a dirty word in football, but it need not be; the only way debt becomes overly problematic is if clubs are unable to service it, or it unduly impacts their ability to spend elsewhere.
In that sense, Forest shouldn't have too much new to be concerned about in the immediate future. While their debt burden has increased by £25million, the more favourable rate — and a fixed one at that — means interest costs have only increased by around £0.6m annually.
That is, however, simply relative to the club's previous position. £7m in annual interest isn't too bad for a club in the Premier League and the commensurate wealth that brings (The Athletic estimates Forest earned £157.5m in domestic prize money alone last season), but should a bad season result in relegation, interest quickly becomes a much bigger problem.
An 8.75 per cent interest rate is hardly cheap, though it's also not as hefty as some other clubs are paying — including Forest's own recent payments to RMF. Rates are high generally and a potential drop into the Championship, deemed a possibility for all but a minority of clubs, makes it difficult to obtain low-rate lending. A positive is that Forest have now locked in the rate on this tranche of funding, so are no longer subject to interest rate swings and have certainty over upcoming payments — though, of course, that could turn to a negative if rates fall in the future.
Advertisement
Of greater concern is whether Forest have anything to show for it. If the money has only been used to cover ongoing costs, that's much less desirable than pouring it into infrastructure; for example, the imminent works at the City Ground. Debt just to fund existing operations always raises the question of how it will eventually be repaid. Eight Premier League clubs paid more in interest than Forest in 2023-24, some substantially so, but several of those did it to build new or improved facilities.
There's also the important point that all of the club being used as security precludes Forest from putting its assets up against any other funding, such as whatever may be required to pay for those City Ground works. That money will, presumably, have to come from the pockets of owner Evangelos Marinakis.
The repayment date for the Apollo loan isn't until December 2027, but could be extended to 2029, and it may be that Forest simply refinance again. In the immediate term, the lending doesn't look overly risky or expensive — at least relative to what went before.
But finances at Forest, like most clubs outside a handful, will remain reliant on on-field success.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Unilever's (UL) Resilient Business Model Underpins Its Dividend Reliability
Unilever's (UL) Resilient Business Model Underpins Its Dividend Reliability

Yahoo

time13 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

Unilever's (UL) Resilient Business Model Underpins Its Dividend Reliability

Unilever PLC (NYSE:UL) is included among the Top 10 Safest Dividend Stocks in the UK. A supermarket shelf overflowing with a variety of fast-moving consumer goods. The U.K.-based giant Unilever PLC (NYSE:UL) holds a vast portfolio of consumer staples and everyday household brands, spanning everything from cleaning supplies and personal care products to food items. In June, the company reached a deal to purchase the men's grooming company Dr. Squatch from private equity firm Summit Partners in a transaction valued at $1.5 billion, as per a Financial Times report. Dr. Squatch has built a strong reputation for offering high-quality, natural personal care items, particularly appealing to millennial and Gen Z male consumers. The company is reportedly on course to exceed $400 million in annual revenue. In the first quarter, Unilever PLC (NYSE:UL) achieved underlying sales growth of 3%, demonstrating the strength of its increasingly premium and innovation-driven portfolio in developed markets. It has implemented strategies in certain emerging markets to accelerate growth in the remainder of the year. Despite ongoing global economic uncertainties, the company remains confident in meeting its full-year targets due to the quality of its innovation program, substantial brand investments, and enhanced competitiveness. Unilever PLC (NYSE:UL) also grabs investors' attention due to its strong dividend policy. The company currently offers a quarterly dividend of $0.5151 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.21%, as of July 25. While we acknowledge the potential of UL as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you're looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock. READ NEXT: and Disclosure: None. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data

Steady Dividends from Industrial Strength: Pentair (PNR) in Focus
Steady Dividends from Industrial Strength: Pentair (PNR) in Focus

Yahoo

time13 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

Steady Dividends from Industrial Strength: Pentair (PNR) in Focus

Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) is included among the Top 10 Safest Dividend Stocks in the UK. A factory worker with protective goggles and a hardhat inspecting a water filtration system. Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) is an American company focused on water treatment solutions. While its headquarters are in the United States, the company is legally registered in Ireland and has its tax residence in the United Kingdom. Piper Sandler recently identified Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) as a leading contender in the artificial intelligence surge. The firm started covering the software company with an Overweight rating and set a price target of $175, indicating a potential upside of around 13% from Palantir's closing price on Thursday. Pentair plc (NYSE:PNR) recently reported its earnings for the second quarter of 2025 and demonstrated a strong cash position. The company's operating cash flow was $607 million, and its free cash flow was $596 million. It also paid $82.4 million to shareholders through dividends. In addition, PNR has been rewarding its shareholders with growing dividends for the past 49 years. Currently, it pays a quarterly dividend of $0.25 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.97%, as of July 25. While we acknowledge the potential of PNR as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you're looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock. READ NEXT: and Disclosure: None. Sign in to access your portfolio

Nick Kurtz's historic 4-HR barrage is latest proof that he's slugging his way into AL Rookie of the Year race
Nick Kurtz's historic 4-HR barrage is latest proof that he's slugging his way into AL Rookie of the Year race

Yahoo

time13 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

Nick Kurtz's historic 4-HR barrage is latest proof that he's slugging his way into AL Rookie of the Year race

For the first time in his young career, 22-year-old first baseman Nick Kurtz was named AL Player of the Week on Monday after his highly productive showing in the Athletics' first series of the second half vs. Cleveland. With the All-Star festivities having put a pause on the regular season, this award, doled out weekly by the league office, didn't cover the usual sample of six or seven games played over a week. Instead, it highlighted just the first weekend after the break. And in that abbreviated sample, Kurtz mashed to an outstanding degree, collecting multiple hits in all three games at Progressive Field, including five of the extra-base variety. On the surface, it's a modest accomplishment for the rookie first baseman, the first official accolade in a career that promises to feature plenty more. At the same time, 'player of the week' wholly undersells what Kurtz has been doing at the plate lately. Because he was not just the star of this past week(end). He has been the best hitter in baseball for the past nine weeks. He put the baseball world on further notice Friday with a historic night at the plate when he became the first rookie in MLB history to homer four times in a game against the Houston Astros. He went 6-for-6 with 8 RBI and 19 total bases. Neither Aaron Judge nor Cal Raleigh nor Ronald Acuña Jr. nor Kurtz's NL Player of the Week counterpart, red-hot trade candidate Eugenio Suárez, has been as dominant with the bat as the A's rookie since the end of May. Over a 42-game stretch that didn't include Friday's historic night, Kurtz was hitting .327/.408/.782 with 18 home runs, good for a 1.190 OPS and 217 wRC+ that were both tops in baseball. [Join or create a Yahoo Fantasy Football league for the 2025 NFL season] 'I think Nick's put himself, in a very short time, in conversation about Rookie of the Year,' A's manager Mark Kotsay said in Cleveland. 'We've got one on the team right now that's probably a little ahead of him in Jacob [Wilson]. But it's fun to watch these two, and it's going to be fun to watch them over the next 64 games and the progress they're able to make.' Indeed, Wilson's marvelous first half, which led to him starting the All-Star Game at shortstop for the AL, has somewhat overshadowed Kurtz's prolonged hot streak. But make no mistake: Both are succeeding to a degree achieved by very few rookie hitters as they emerge as one of the most promising young position-player duos in baseball. 'Nick, he's still learning the league,' Kotsay said. 'Jacob got a little head start on him. 'But Nick seems to be a quick learner.' 'Now it's go time' Three weeks of torching Triple-A pitching earned Kurtz his big-league call-up on April 23, roughly nine months after he was selected fourth overall in the 2024 MLB Draft. It wasn't smooth sailing at first: After he hit his first home run on May 13, Kurtz fell into an 0-for-21 skid that plummeted his OPS to a paltry .558. But Kurtz didn't panic. And those who observed how he went about his business in the earliest days of his big-league tenure were unsurprised when he began to not just dig himself out of that hole but also flourish in spectacular fashion upon finding his footing. 'He had to go through some struggles, like everybody does, and he didn't press,' A's hitting coach Chris Cron said. 'It wasn't a major deal. Of course he wanted to do well, but it wasn't the end of the world.' 'When you come billed with the kind of power he came with, to not be able to tap into that readily and immediately, I think you would see some guys start to scramble,' former A's pitcher and current broadcaster Dallas Braden said. 'Instead, what he did was cut the swing down and spray the baseball all over the yard until he got comfortable to a point where he could dip back into that power pool.' It took some time for Kurtz to tweak his patented patient approach, which he mastered as an amateur, to fit the unique challenge of hitting major-league pitching. 'If you wait for your pitch, you're probably striking out on three pitches,' he said. 'It's all about adjusting on the fly and pitch-to-pitch. Some guys, you need to be aggressive on pitches that aren't necessarily your pitch. When I first got up, I was trying to be a little too patient. Being down 0-1, 0-2, 1-2 so much … this game is so hard.' Kurtz realized early on that he needed to take control of his at-bats, rather than letting the opposing pitcher dictate the terms of engagement. And behind the scenes, he was making adjustments to allow his strengths to manifest against more daunting competition. 'His ability just to communicate what he's trying to do, understand the information that we're throwing out there — that doesn't just happen with a snap of the finger,' Cron said. 'You tell him something, he can absorb, and he can apply. Application of the information is the hardest thing to grasp, and he does that.' Said All-Star teammate Brent Rooker: 'To have as high-level approaches as he has as a 22-year-old, and then to also go out and execute them and execute them with the power that he does … That makes him stand out.' Soon enough, Kurtz began to better understand when to unleash his thunderous left-handed swing — 'It's about playing the game and the situations,' he said — and the results followed. 'Once he found himself in 2-0, 2-1s, 3-0, 3-1s,' Braden said, 'now it's go time.' With that, Kurtz took off. On May 20, he snapped his hitless skid with a single and a home run against the Angels. Two more homers followed the next day. A strained left hip flexor put Kurtz on the injured list later that week and threatened to derail his newfound momentum, but the brief injury scare was no trouble. It took just one minor-league rehab game — he homered, of course — before Kurtz rejoined the A's lineup and resumed raking. 'It's kind of what you dream about' As the home runs kept coming, each seismic swing seemed to carry greater weight than the last: A go-ahead blast off Royals closer Carlos Estévez in the top of the ninth in Kansas City. Two walk-off homers against the Astros off elite relievers in Bryan Abreu and Josh Hader. A titanic, three-run shot in Detroit — the only home run ball to reach the shrubbery beyond the center-field wall at Comerica Park this season — that provided the only runs in a 3-0 victory over the Tigers. And that magical Friday night against the Astros. Whether in pregame batting practice or in high-stakes battles against some of the best pitchers on the planet, the power that was promised during Kurtz's brief time as a prospect has consistently been on display this season. Most remarkably, Kurtz's ability to clear the fence from foul pole to foul pole is nearly unrivaled; only Judge has hit more home runs to the opposite field or to straightaway center since the start of June. And when Kurtz is going good, the homers tend to come in bunches. It happened last spring, when he hit 14 homers in a 10-game span after a cold start to his junior season at Wake Forest. It happened before his call-up this year, when he hit seven homers across 12 games in Triple-A. Now it's happening at the highest level, with a five-homers-in-six-games run in June and a seven-homers-in-13-games stretch in July. Kurtz did his best to describe what it's like to be so locked in: "It's probably one of the best feelings, knowing when you're up there — honestly, it doesn't matter whether you get a hit or not — but I know what I'm feeling in my swing, I know exactly where [the bat] is going. I'm seeing the ball — it's huge right now. It's kind of what you dream about.' "It amazes me,' said Rooker, who was also a first-round pick out of college but didn't blossom into an impact big-league bat until his age-28 season. 'I was a very, very good college player. And if you had thrown me in the big leagues at 22, I would've absolutely had no chance.' [Get more A's news: Athletics team feed] 'I don't think people realize how difficult that is' Rooker's more gradual development only increases his appreciation for how Kurtz and Wilson have hit the ground running as rookies. 'Their ability to just jump right in and have success immediately and adjust as quickly as they have, I don't think people realize how difficult that is,' he said. Adding to the unique dynamic of this unrivaled rookie duo is how drastically different they are as players. Wilson is a skinny, right-handed shortstop who thrives on a hyper-aggressive approach and succeeds thanks to his nearly unparalleled bat-to-ball skills. Kurtz is a gargantuan, left-handed first baseman who whiffs often but pulverizes the ball so frequently that the punchouts are entirely tolerable. 'I don't think there's one way, from a hitting standpoint, to tell somebody how to do it,' Kotsay said. 'Jacob has his unique style. He's a bat-to-ball guy that puts it in play and sometimes seems to have a magic wand where he can hit it where he wants to. I played with a guy like that — Tony Gwynn — who had that magic wand. 'And for Nick, when he touches it, he impacts the baseball, and he can leave anywhere in the yard. They're definitely two different styles of hitters, but they have an advanced approach for how young they are in knowing who they are and knowing what they're trying to do.' Said Wilson of his counterpart: 'When we drafted him, it was obviously a huge bat for us to go out and get, and as you can see, it's translating to the big-league level pretty nicely right now. Definitely happy to have him on the team, excited to hopefully play with him for a very long time.' Kurtz's and Wilson's Baseball Savant pages are opposites to a spectacular degree, a fitting reflection of each player leaning all the way in on what he does best. To Rooker, this is a great sign. "The key to having success here is knowing what you're good at and then just being as good as you possibly can be at those things,' he said. 'Everybody here is doing something at an elite level. ... You have to figure out what that thing is, and you have to be as good as you possibly can at that. There's a ton of value, obviously, in trying to improve your weaknesses. [But] I think there's more value in finding your superpower and doing that as well as you possibly can. And I think those two guys are perfect examples of that.' 'Yes ... I'm a big leaguer' For as impressive of a start to his career as Kurtz has had, he knows this is just the beginning. "I put zero expectations on myself in Year 1,' he said. 'I had no idea what I was getting into.' He also will not stay this hot forever; another round of adjustments is surely in store, a regression to reality that will put his advanced aptitude to the test once again. And for the Athletics as a whole — a franchise in a transition between cities, with an inexperienced yet ascendent roster still figuring out how to translate talent into victories — every game is another opportunity to grow together. 'That's the best part about what we've developed here with some of those young guys — they're coming up together,' Cron said. 'And these two guys, Jacob, with his lineage, with his dad playing [in the big leagues], he's been around the game. The maturity of Nick Kurtz is off the charts. Physically, they're not the same, but they have this mindset of, 'Yes,' — without being braggadocious —'I'm a big leaguer.' And there's nothing that really fazes either one of them.' Veterans such as Rooker will continue to play a critical role in these young players' development, and Kurtz is quick to credit the A's DH, as well as the recently released Seth Brown. But Kurtz also knows that the franchise's future depends on his generation becoming the driving force behind the team's success. 'We might not all know the answers,' he said, 'but we're in it together, and we're gonna figure it out.'

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store