Documents seen by Josimar suggest that 777 Partners owed a total of 3.6 billion US dollars to creditors in the summer of 2023. Overdue debt-related payments totalling over 145 million dollars raises fresh concerns about the finances of the US group and its portfolio of clubs.
By Philippe Auclair and Paul Brown
There is nothing unusual for a company the size of 777 Partners to borrow millions by the tens, or even the hundreds, in exceptional circumstances. There is something unusual, however, about the scale of their borrowing shortly before they agreed a deal to purchase Everton. According to documents seen by Josimar, 777's corporate debt stood at 3.6 billion US dollars in the summer of 2023, way more than had been thought previously.
As explained by Josimar, the Miami-based firm has come to increasingly rely on the largesse of backer Kenneth King to finance its operations over the past few years. It is estimated that King, via the companies he controls under the A-CAP banner, has provided 777 with at least a billion dollars worth of loans at interest rates as high as 15 percent. But King was not 777's only source of credit. Of the creditors whose names appear in one of the new documents Josimar has had access to, one name and one figure jump off the page: National Bank of Canada's fully-owned subsidiary Credigy, to whom 777 Partners owed 1.22 billion US dollars as of mid-August 2023.
This figure is by some distance the single largest outstanding principal on the page.
Credigy describes itself as a “global business-to-business specialty finance company” which invests in “consumer-relat...