Bank of America arranged the new deal, having helped Spurs restructure its stadium debt
in 2019. The club signed a £400m loan with three banks in May 2017 to finance its new 62,850 seat stadium, which it later refinanced with £525m of US PPs.
Sources said the new deal largely went to existing investors in the previous private placement. This meant that many in the market were unaware the transaction took place, as there was no full marketing period.
A prominent banker in the PP market said that though he did not know about the deal he was not surprised by it: “I’m sure they want shot of the CCFF given the likely political pressure of not sending the Bank of England’s money to players pockets.”
Spurs used the CCFF scheme to issue £175m of commercial paper through its Tottenham Hotspur Stadium Ltd special purpose vehicle
last June. This commercial paper facility, which the club cannot use to finance player acquisitions, is set to end in March 2022, but borrowers can request to repay the funds early during a sell-back window run weekly by the Bank of England. As of Wednesday, the Bank of England held just over £4.6bn of outstanding commercial paper issued under the scheme.
Spurs is not the only footballing entity to have sought outside funding this year.
The English Football League (EFL) signed a loan agreement with MetLife
in March, for example, while 12 European clubs, including Spurs, announced short-lived plans for
a European Super League backed by funds from JP Morgan.
Tottenham’s mid-table rival Arsenal already repaid its own £120m CCFF holding earlier this month. The Islington-based club is believed to have taken out a loan with Barclays to finance the repayment, according to Companies House. The exact size and terms were not disclosed.
In early 2020,
Everton FC appointed JP Morgan and MUFG to arrange roughly £500m of financing to fund the team’s new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock in Liverpool. Sources have told
GlobalCapital to expect that deal to reach the capital markets in the coming months. "Everyone was expecting the Everton deal in the PP market so the Tottenham one came as a bit of a bolt from the blue," said a PP investor in London. He said he wouldn't be surprised if other football clubs will try to term out CCFF loans in the debt markets in the coming months.
Spurs’ visit to the debt capital markets is not the only surprise return the club. Its beloved former manager Mauricio Pochettino is rumoured to return to the vacant manager role, 18 months after he first left — just a few months after the last PP was signed.