The club posted a pre-tax and interest loss of £33.6m, made up of a £9.9m operating loss before player trading, and a £23.7m loss on player trading.
Saints recorded net payable interest of £20.3m, comprised mostly of bank loans and transfer-related costs, while no tax was payable due to the losses.
The figures follow the club recording a pre-tax profit of £17.3m during the 2023/24 Championship year, and an £87m loss in 2022/23.
Profit and Sustainability Rules allow Saints to lose £83m pre-tax over three years, but PSR is calculated differently due to key investment exclusions.
Some expenses, such as infrastructure, youth academies, women’s teams and community projects, are excluded from the losses calculated for PSR.
The financial accounts of St Mary’s Football Group, under which the operations of the club fall, were published by Companies House on Sunday.
Saints finished 20th in the Premier League during 2024/25, for which these accounts are made up, having won promotion via the play-offs in 2024.
As a result of promotion, the group’s turnover increased to £158.4m last year, from £84.8m in 2023/24. This is mostly due to TV broadcast revenue.
Saints received £114.7m in TV revenue last season – compared to £56m, mostly made up of parachute payments, in the Championship in 2023/24.
Turnover was also an 8.9 per cent improvement on the 2022/23 season, which is more comparable due to also competing in the Premier League.
Commercial revenue, worth £20.2m to Saints, was up 35.9 per cent on the 2022/23 season, while match day revenue was up 3.1 per cent (£19.8m).
The club say they are committed to driving commercial revenue in order to mitigate the discrepancy between broadcast revenue in the leagues.
In total, Saints paid around £52.2m for players signed, and received around £28.6m for sales. Most transfers are paid over multiple years, not up-front.
Saints owed £57m more for transfers by June 2026, plus a further £42.3m in future.
Player amortisation charges for the year exceeded the profits generated from the sales of Lyanco, Charly Alcaraz, Sekou Mara and Duje Caleta-Car.
Saints signed the likes of Aaron Ramsdale, Taylor Harwood-Bellis, Flynn Downes, Cameron Archer and Mateus Fernandes ahead of the season.
Wages of first team players increased to £83.2m, up from £58.8m, but represented a lower proportion of the club’s turnover (52.5 per cent vs 68).
Tighter cost control saw all staff wages decrease from 93.5 per cent of turnover in 2024 to 73.2, despite ending with 30 more employees (400).
Saints paid a total of £2.4m to directors, of which the highest paid director received £1.1m. No dividends were proposed to be paid to shareholders.
Saints have outstanding bank loans totalling £81.3m, secured against club assets, up from £56.7m in 2024. This was set out in last year’s accounts.
The group made payments on the loan, taken with MSD Holdings in 2020, in the Championship, but uplifted the facility to £80m+ and refinanced it.
Although it is not unusual debt in the elite football landscape, future cash flow and therefore Premier League status are vitally important to Saints.
The report shows £8.8m interest on bank loans payable during the year 2024/25, while the remaining interest owed related mainly to transfer fees.
The group, backed by Dragan Solak, is labelled a going concern – financially stable enough to meet its obligations – as is normal for football clubs.