Hull City owners dip into the red

Hull City owner Allamhouse has dipped into the red following a decline in performance in its engineering business, as well as having to foot the £10m bill for the football club’s promotion into the Premier League.

It saw turnover rise from £146.2m to £150.6m for the year to December 2016.

However pre-tax, it made a loss of £7.2m, plummeting from a profit of £9.4m the year before.

The company acts as a management holding company for subsidiaries including Hull City football club, as well as stadium management, engineering and property development businesses.

Allamhouse’s engineering division faced a 12% decline in turnover, to £70m from £80m the year before, and it experienced losses in its stadium development due to increased investment and depreciation.

Allamhouse said that turnover had increased “substantially” at the Hull City, due to the club’s promotion to the Premier League. However a payment of £10m made due to the club’s promotion offset gains on selling players.

Sales for Hull City rose to just under £80m, a 19% increase on the year before. It reported its results separately back in August 2016.

The company said it was hopefully that the return would ensure that the company went back into profitability, however with two more games left in the season following a 2-0 defeat against Sunderland on the weekend, Hull City is in relegation zone by one point, meaning its Premier League hopes could already be dashed.

Rumours abound than the owners, the Allam family, are set to sell Hull City. A deal was reportedly on the table for a Chinese consortium to acquire the business for £130m last year after a note was placed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. One deal with a different Chinese company had already fallen through.

Allamhouse is the vehicle of the Allam family, who were named in the Sunday Times Rich List last week. £6m in dividends were paid to directors including Assem Allam and his son Ehab Allam according to the latest report.

The company also donated £100,000 to the Labour Party Leadership campaign.