It's all interesting stuff. Surely it would be more in their interest to pay down the debt, then start pocketing the clubs new found massive profits yearly, rather than just pocket the money directly.
Or they could be looking to sell soon.
It depends if they're playing the long game or not, as you say.
If they're looking to stick around then yes, lowering interest payments means that they could take...£20m out of the club every year and still leave over a considerable amount to keep the club extremely competitive.
We obv don't know whether they plan to stick around or not.
The problem is that it's likely they do want to stick around, only they need alot of cash now because they have other debts to pay down. It's not possible to prove that but floating an IPO in such stormy seas is a pretty desperate move. There are also reports that their personal businesses' are struggling and it's also likely they took out a loan to pay down the PIK debts which they will have to repay eventually.
I think that they originally planned to do what you say, and then at some point float and rake in a whole load of money before taking a continuous flow of money out of the club (whilst keeping it competitive) and then sell up when the value got really high. Problem has been the unforeseen circumstances such as the financial crisis and also, the influx of money from the likes of City.
