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The Lotto and Intermarché groups are purported to be merging. Tomorrow is the deadline to submit registration papers to the UCI. It’s reported that Lotto plans to race on, with Intermarché coming over as co-sponsor and bringing some riders and administration alongside too.
With this the Intermarché licence would wither and it’s right here that some issues come up as a result of the workforce has massive money owed. Can it drop these by swapping the licence over to a different workforce?
Loyal readers will bear in mind final 12 months’s Halloween piece in regards to the Intermarché-Wanty workforce’s important, repeated losses. The workforce has been racking up massive losses. The 2022 accounts pledged to repair this solely come 2023 this hadn’t been resolved. The excellent news was the close to €2 million loss was halved however nonetheless that meant dropping an additional million Euros in 2023 and that’s unsustainable.
Accounts from 2023 – the final set obtainable, 2024 ought to seem quickly – confirmed €500,000 injected by unnamed shareholders and a two million Euro mortgage from one of many workforce’s sponsors – presumably considered one of both Wanty or Intermarché however lender isn’t named – was wanted preserve them on the street.
The screengrab above exhibits a part of the stability sheet with 2022 within the left column and 2023 on the correct. Professional biking groups sometimes have small stability sheets as a result of they’ve few belongings and liabilities however that is notable for the massive money owed.
All that is from 2023. But it surely doesn’t appear to be previous information as a result of these money owed are a problem that also exists in response to studies within the Belgian media, see Het Laatse Nieuws.
In easy phrases can Lotto come alongside and choose up the belongings of the Intermarché workforce such the riders it desires and Intermarché as a brand new co-sponsor, whereas ditching the issues it doesn’t need like money owed? Equally from the Intermarché workforce’s facet if the lender is Wanty (or bike provider Dice and so forth), will it need the present workforce to fade and depart unpaid money owed; or if the lender is Intermarché, will it roll over sponsorship to the brand new workforce however say goodbye to getting repaid or insist Lotto takes on the debt?
To additional complicate issues the screengrab above confirmed the workforce had additional unpaid money owed in wages, taxes and social safety funds, additionally operating to over one million Euros. Now a few of this might simply be par for the course, sums as a consequence of be paid sooner or later that had been logged within the accounts on the due date and have since been paid.
That is the place the politics are available in as a result of Lotto is the Belgian state lottery. The corporate is beneath shut tutelage of politicians to the purpose the place they preserve a detailed eye on the biking workforce’s operations. So it may very well be tough to let the Intermarché licence drop and waive any unpaid social safety contributions, or different unpaid money owed. Or equally to comply with fund the workforce solely to discover a chunk of the price range goes out the door on mortgage repayments for what was one other workforce. It’s probably political.
ConclusionBoth groups have incentives to conclude the merger to allow them to race in 2026 and past. Every wants the opposite’s co-sponsor as alone they’ll wrestle. Lotto doesn’t have the funding to assist a return to the World Tour with just one title sponsor, whereas Intermarché has money owed to repay and every have had a weak season. So the overhang of money owed of two million Euros or extra is an actual subject to sq..
With studies of the excellent debt, revisiting the accounts lets us see it was a mortgage from a sponsor. Whoever lent the Intermarché workforce this nonetheless has round two million causes to intervene and search some form of reimbursement or roll-over however that is the very last thing Lotto wants, it could be the largest declare on the brand new price range, greater than Arnaud De Lie’s seven determine wage.
With sooner or later left earlier than the UCI’s delicate deadline of 15 October there’s no information on a decision. It may be solved however there probably wider points than this merger for the longer term when one other a workforce with money owed desires to experience on.
