Chelsea's owners have issued PS190m of new shares as the club seeks to tackle transfer debt.

On Sunday evening, two separate filings with Companies House showed that 22 Holdco Limited, the parent holding company, had issued 12,514,482 of Class A ordinary shares, and 6,485,518 of Class B ordinary shares, with the value paid equating to PS190m.

A filing also arrived from BlueCo 22 Limited, the immediate parent company of Chelsea, which showed 2,000 shares had been issued at a value per share of PS95,000. The filing showed the trickle down of the money from 22 Holdco Limited to BlueCo 22 Limited.

The move by the owners of the club, American private equity firm Clearlake Capital and US billionaire Todd Boehly, is likely borne from the need to satisfy a large amount of outstanding transfer debt that the club must pay over the next 12 months. According to figures presented by football finance expert Kieran Maguire, BlueCo 22 Limited's trade creditors stood at some PS532m for the most recent financial period, with PS272m of that due within one year, with PS260m due in more than a year.

While not all of that sum relates to transfer fees outstanding, with BlueCo 22 not itemising just the nature of the creditors, a large amount of that sum will be related to transfer debt given the sheer volume of players signed for large fees.

While the club's accounting method that had been introduced early in the reign of ownership in 2022 before, where transfer fees were amortised over six, seven, eight and nine-year deals, since capped at five by both UEFA and the Premier League, is purely for accounting purposes and the instalment plans on each deal and when the selling clubs need to be paid by differs greatly.

Transfer debt impacts cash flow and in order to make sure that the club can meet its repayment obligations to other clubs. The ultimate ownership of Chelsea is split across the Clearlake-owned Blues Investment Midco LP, and the Boehly-owned BlueCo 22 Holdings LP.

The former holds Class A ordinary shares and the latter Class B ordinary shares. Using the allocation of shares in 22 Holdco Limited, it suggests a very minor increase in the ownership stake of Clearlake, and decrease in the stake of Boehly.