Last week weekly paid players at Hearts didn’t get paid and those on monthly salaries faced delayed payments, but the problems should all have been sorted out today. Hearts maintain that the failure to pay employees was down to a technical problem. It appears that the problem arose when owners Ukio Bankas Investment Group, who regularly deposit money into Hearts’ bank account, stopped making payments earlier this month. HBOS, who have their own problems, refused to let the overdraft rise above £100,000.
Last week weekly paid players at Hearts didn’t get paid and those on monthly salaries faced delayed payments, but the problems should all have been sorted out today. Hearts maintain that the failure to pay employees was down to a technical problem. It appears that the problem arose when owners Ukio Bankas Investment Group, who regularly deposit money into Hearts’ bank account, stopped making payments earlier this month. HBOS, who have their own problems, refused to let the overdraft rise above £100,000. A spokesman for UBIG stressed that Hearts’ finances were ‘in the best shape they have been for five years.’ Club debt was last reported at £36m, since when UBIG has announced a £12m debt-for-equity swap. The wage issue has led to questions about the financial health of UBIG. The company brings in profits that are described as being only at a similar level to a local ’boutique’ specialist bank like Edinburgh-based Adam and Company. Such smaller banks are said to be less exposed to ‘toxic’ credit markets than the global operators. UBIG has a better capital ratio (the percentage of its assets that it has in capital) than Scotland’s two banks, HBOS and Royal Bank of Scotland. Overall group pre-tax profits at UBIG increased by 15 per cent to £14.3m in the half year to the end of June 2008.