Category: Business News

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A rent to own TV and domestic appliance firm has gone into administration with the loss of 41 jobs.

Another 226 jobs are at risk at Bridgend-based Buy As You View (BAYV), which has 40,000 customers across the UK.

Administrators EY said the company had “continued to incur significant losses” despite major restructuring.

The business started in Pontypridd in 1972 and was at one time a major sponsor of the town’s rugby club.

Of the 41 redundancies, 19 were in south Wales.

The company started offering rent to own TVs but has branched out into deals for other electrical and domestic appliances as well as furniture.

Back in 2010, the company claimed to have 100,000 customers and 700 staff.

The company offers online hire purchase, which can involve a smart meter being connected to the household TV as security, restricting viewing if people do not keep up with their payments.

Joe O’Connor, joint administrator, said: “Over the last year, BAYV, has sought to respond to a period of significant market and regulatory change in the sector and has undertaken a substantial restructuring of its business model and operations.

“This included moving to an online sales model and focusing on core parts of the UK where the Buy As You View brand is best known and has a loyal customer base.

“However, despite attempts to adjust its cost base to a more sustainable basis, the business has continued to incur significant losses.”

He said the directors had now reluctantly placed Dunraven Finance – which trades as BAYV – into administration to enable further restructuring to be undertaken.

“As a result, we have taken the difficult decision to make 41 people redundant and are now working with the company’s remaining 226 employees to continue to manage the business,” said Mr O’Connor.

The administrator said he wanted to reassure customers who have bought products through Buy As You View that it was “business as usual” and they should continue to make payments in the usual way.

Speaking on Good Evening Wales, Bridgend MP Madeleine Moon said there are two lots of people affected by the news.

She said staff who work in the Bridgend headquarters “must be very worried about their future and jobs”, and they will be offered help and support from the Department of Work and Pensions and the local authority.

She was also concerned about the 40,000 people who have furniture and electrical goods contracts with the firm.

Analysis by Brian Meechan, BBC Wales business correspondent

Buy As You View allows people to buy products ranging from TVs and game consoles to furniture on a weekly basis until the end of the repayment term, when they then own the product.

Interest rates are very high – 68.9% is the APR advertised on the company’s website. But credit is offered to people who may struggle to get credit elsewhere or have no credit rating at all.

Regulations have changed though and are much stronger in this area, with the regulator having much more control.

BAYV was ordered by the Financial Conduct Authority last year to pay a total of almost £1m compensation to 59,000 customers. Amongst concerns were the use of payment meters to restrict a customer access to their TV if payments were not received on time.

The company has been looking to restructure ever since and administrators will now be looking for a way through to help those 226 remaining workers, whose jobs are at risk.

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Change is constant on and off the football field, and technological advances means fans could soon be watching more intuitive players via more mobile friendly channels.

The 22nd Soccerex football finance event returns to Manchester this weekend for its last year as host – discussing everything from who will be showing future action, to how top stars will in future be mentally match conditioned.

There is change around the forum itself. Not only is the event poised to move to a new city next year, it is also the first without founder Duncan Revie as its driving force after his death last autumn.

And Revie, as an innovator, would have taken a close interest in football’s continued march into a new digital era.

“Technology is continuing to emerge as a major part of the business of football,” says Soccerex’s David Wright.

“It’s a big factor on both the straight technology side and on the media side of things, where disruptors are helping to change viewing culture.

“Social media is also changing the way fans consume football, and changing the broadcasting landscape.

“Viewing habits are changing and more customers are moving online to watch football.”

Live streaming

In the UK it was recently reported that Sky had experienced a 14% drop in viewing figures but also recorded a 31% rise in adoption of its online services Sky Go and NOW TV.

Indeed, there is debate in the sport industry at present involving broadcasters, rights holders and social media experts about the value and direction of rights in this disrupted marketplace.

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For example Amazon Prime has reportedly secured the rights to stream nearly all elite men’s tennis events except for the four grand slams, with the US digital giant having secured the UK rights to the ATP World Tour from Sky.

It would be Amazon’s second big live-TV-sports rights deal this year, after its tie-up with the National Football League to stream 10 Thursday-night American Football games in the US from this month.

And it has the rights to live audio-stream Bundesliga football commentaries in Germany, available via its Amazon Music service.

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Meanwhile, Facebook is also looking to establish deeper digital and streaming relationships with football clubs, fans and rights holders alike.

The social media giant last year streamed Wayne Rooney’s Man Utd v Everton testimonial match free of charge. It also live streamed matches from Spain’s La Liga last season.

And in the the US, where it has already streamed Major League Soccer (MLS) games, the social network will from this month show live Champions League matches through a partnership with Fox Sports.

‘Dip in and out’

“The current state of flux is creating both problems and opportunities for all rights holders and media companies involved,” says Mr Wright.

“A lot of companies are looking to become viable challengers to more established media platforms. The Premier League rights are coming up for auction again sooner than we think. How Sky or BT will bid, or an incoming challenger such as Amazon or someone else, is up in the air.”

He adds: “If Amazon or Apple for example decided to bid, they would use their technological expertise to make it work.

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“There is technology there to deliver it via streaming and the internet, or via smart TVs. Also it is worth remembering that BT didn’t have sports channels until they had done their first rights deal, so these things can be turned around quickly.

“It is new technology that is allowing all of these new incumbents to operate. People want to dip in and out of content, and they want lots of it.”

It comes as a report from strategy consultants OC&C says that up to £1bn of the UK broadcast industry’s overall profit could be at risk from the emergence of rivals such as Amazon and Facebook.

And Mr Wright says that social media changes are not only disrupting broadcasting, but also marketing.

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“Historically, a brand seeking wider exposure might have gone with a player to endorse your product, or gone with TV advertising,” he says.

“Now there are other people on YouTube who may have many more eyeballs than the TV channels. And they have a trustworthy air and reputation, but bigger channels can seem more corporate.

“What we are seeing in the marketing aspect in football are these user-generated channels.”

For example, one of the most popular of the supporter channels, Arsenal Fan TV, carries advertising for bookmaker Ladbrokes.

‘Field vision’

Meanwhile technology continues to develop in other parts of the industry, including traditional areas such as marketing, ticketing, and sponsorship.

However, it is in around health, fitness and performance where some of the most interesting innovations are taking place.

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For example, firms are looking at ways to help footballers improve their “field vision” – their ability to anticipate, react quickly, and make the right decision at high speed.

Using technology, it is developing a methodology to break “vision” into separate components such as: peripheral vision, eye reaction time, and pattern recognition, which will enhance player performance.

Tech that enables players to boost fitness and avoid injuries will also be discussed as Soccerex, which is set to be attended by 3,000 delegates, 450 clubs, 700 sports rights holders, and 170 exhibitors.

‘Awful surprise’

As mentioned, founder Duncan Revie, 62, passed away last September.

The son of the former Leeds and England manager, he came up with the idea for the event after a visit to a music business event, and realising he could do the same for football.

The first conference was held in 1996 at Wembley stadium, and since then has been held in Paris, Los Angeles, Dubai, Johannesburg, Rio, as well as in Manchester.

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“His death was a huge blow, an awful surprise, for us to lose the guy who had the vision and drive to build the business,” says Mr Wright.

“The last thing his wife Rita and chairman Tony Martin wanted was to stop what we were doing. It was his passion and commitment which developed the conference and took it across the globe.

“Most positive thing for us is that his legacy continues and we are coming back to Manchester for this year’s Soccerex.”

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Money is short and school uniforms are needed for the new term, or there are Christmas wishes are to be fulfilled.

At the door is a friendly face, often a neighbour, offering an expensive but convenient and immediate cash loan. The deal is done and the relationship between customer and agent begins.

“We would come to know everything about them,” says one agent. “By the second month, we would know what colour clothes they wore on a Friday.”

“They could call us and we would go and do a loan. Our customers would come to rely on it. But we would also keep them on the straight and narrow.”

Whatever the moral viewpoint of this model it was undoubtedly a very successful one for Provident Financial, the 137-year-old door-to-door lender that says it has delivered a profit every year since listing on the UK stock market in 1962.

But then the Bradford-based company replaced these self-employed agents by hiring “customer experience managers”. Clients jumped ship, profit warnings were issued, the company’s share price plummeted, and its chief executive resigned.

The reasons for this business decision are complex, with regulation and accountability part of the equation. Yet, back on the doorstep, those in financial strife remain. So who are these millions of customers, what will they do, and is the door-to-door lending model damaged?

Most of the self-employed agents were women as, they say, were their customers. There were single mums, tenants and people living on the breadline, but there were also professionals such as teachers and builders who may have had credit issues in the past which blocked them from the mainstream market.

Their loans have been relatively expensive. Somebody borrowing £200, and paying it back over 26 weeks, would generally pay interest of more than £100.

‘Cuddles’

Former agents – many of whom are angry at the way they were moved out by the company – say that the personal touch, as much as the convenience, was the key selling point for these doorstep loans.

“Somebody is coming to the door. A few of my customers didn’t see anybody, so they liked the wee interaction,” former agent Daniel Miskelly told BBC Radio 5 Live.

Two ex-agents, who wished to remain anonymous, say that on the odd occasion, understanding the sensitivity of borrowing, this personal touch extended to picking up repayments in secret from a rubbish bin. It also meant they could talk some customers out of loans they thought might get them into financial trouble.

They still receive calls from their old customers. There were “cuddles and tears” when they stopped working for Provident. The company has “taken the personal” out of Provident, they say.

Even though it may have been a positive for the company, those personal relationships may have actually been a weakness for many customers, according to debt charities.

StepChange says that customers struggling with repayments may feel more of an obligation to keep repaying doorstep loans, owing to that personal relationship, when they should instead be concentrating on repaying priority debts such as rent, or council tax.

Rolled over loans tend to lock people into long-term debt, it adds, and many of those who sought help from the charity also had other forms of high-cost credit.

For example, 54% of the charity’s clients who had doorstep loans also owed an average £2,681 in total on more than two credit cards.

‘Big problems’

Another charity – Citizens Advice – says that some doorstep loan customers might not get such a friendly service from providers in general.

“Although some customers like the personalised experience of a doorstep loan, where a lending agent visits their house each week to collect a repayment, for other customers it can cause big problems,” it says.

“Citizens Advice has seen many cases where lending agents use high-pressure sales tactics, carry out inadequate affordability checks to issue a loan, and use aggressive practices to collect repayments.”

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One borrower, who did not want to be named, says she was sold a loan while suffering from depression. Although the agent was “pleasant”, she says, she never really wanted anyone to come to the door.

“That loan should never have been made. They put the money in front of me,” she says.

Eventually the debt was written off.

Mick McAteer, founder of the Financial Exclusion Centre, says that the temptation provided by high-cost lenders as a whole has caused wider financial difficulties.

“These lenders made it incredibly easy to borrow money. It is quick to borrow money, whereas it takes time and effort to save and years to see the benefits,” he says.

“[High-cost credit customers] see money in their hand very quickly. It is immediate gratification.”

He says that the strict regulation of the payday lending industry had been one of the most effective developments of recent years, creating a gap in the market which he hopes will be filled by credit unions.

Competition

There is little evidence of that so far, nor do these not-for-profit credit unions appear to have filled the gap left by Provident Financial’s woes.

Earlier this week, Provident’s major competitor, Morses Club, said its loan book had increased by 12% in the six months to the end of August, and that the number of customers had also grown by 12% to 233,000. It has hired a number of Provident’s old agents.

Its chief executive, Paul Smith, said the firm had “capitalised on market conditions” but that its growth had been “accelerated by Provident’s current position, rather than caused by its position”.

It will take much longer to know whether the customers themselves are able to capitalise too.

You can hear more about doorstep lending on Money Box on BBC Radio 4 at 12:00 BST on Saturday 2 September, and again at 21:00 on Sunday 3 September

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Solar panels are to be installed in 800,000 low-income homes across England and Wales over the next five years, as part of a new government scheme.

The Dutch firm, Maas Capital is investing £160m in the project.

The panels are expected to save 100,000 tenants living in social housing hundreds of pounds, according to the UK firm Solarplicity.

The first tenants to benefit from the scheme include residents of a sheltered retirement home in Ealing, west London.

Speaking at the site, International Trade minister Greg Hands said: “This initial £160m capital expenditure programme will deliver massive benefits to some of the UK’s poorest households.

“As well as creating 1,000 jobs and delivering cheaper energy bills for up to 800,000 homes, it shows yet another vote of confidence in the UK as a place to invest and do business.”

The firm providing the panels, Solarplicity, will partner with more than 40 social landlords, including local authorities across England and Wales.

Tenants in the North West will be the biggest beneficiaries with more than 290,000 homes receiving solar panels in towns and cities such as Oldham and Bradford.

The North East and Midlands will also see a significant number of homes benefit.

Tenants will not pay anything towards the installation of the panels and their energy bills will be reduced by an average of £240 per year according to the Department for International Trade.

• Will buses be run on coffee in future?
• How a ‘smarter’ power system might affect you

Julian Bell, leader of Ealing Council welcomed the scheme, but said its own programme of installing solar panels had been curtailed after the government reduced the feed-in tariffs that offered a return on electricity generated from small scale energy schemes.

“The business case didn’t quite add-up when the government made changes to subsidies and feed-in tariffs for sustainable energy,” he said.

“We’re grateful that private investors are coming here and investing in Ealing and benefitting our residents but the government still needs to do more to move people to sustainable energy and solar power particularly.”

The chief executive of Solarplicity, David Elbourne, said the price of solar panels had fallen enough so that government subsidies were no longer essential.

“In the past the feed-in tariff meant that people who could afford to have solar, benefitted from solar. But now people who can’t afford to have solar [can]- we’ll put it on the roof for free – and they will get a reduced energy bill.”

David Hunter, director of market studies at energy management firm, Schneider Electric, gave the scheme a cautious welcome.

“Obviously any kind of investment in the transition to low carbon energy supply can be a positive thing and with any of these developments it’s always best to consider whether it’s best value for money.

“But certainly the idea of upgrading our social housing stock to make it more energy efficient and lower carbon is a worthwhile aim,” he said.

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A fashion company started 30 years ago by a husband and wife from a shop in Wimbledon has just sold a majority stake in the business for £800m.

Private equity firm Apax Partners has acquired a holding in luxury fashion chain Matchesfashion.com.

Founders Tom and Ruth Chapman will continue to own minority stakes in the business.

Mr Chapman also said he and his wife would retain advisory roles with the company.

He said: “After 30 years of growing this business Ruth and I are ready to take on new challenges while remaining shareholders and taking on an advisory role.”

The deal will hand the couple a significant windfall. Earlier this year, the Financial Times reported that they owned a 67% stake in the company.

Scottish Equity Partners and Highland Europe, which are existing venture capitalists in the business, will also continue to hold small stakes.

The deal has been agreed for an undisclosed sum but it has been widely reported at an estimated £800m.

Ulric Jerome, who joined Matchesfashion.com in 2013 before taking over as chief executive from Mr and Mrs Chapman two years later, will stay on at the company along with chief financial officer Fiona Greiner.

The company employs around 500 people and has five shops in London, with plans to open another next year – this time in Mayfair.

It launched online a decade ago and now generates the majority of its revenue from the web. Representing around 450 established and new designers, Matchesfashion.com delivers fashion to 176 countries.

Gabriele Cipparrone, a partner at Apax Partners, said: “Online penetration of the luxury market is still small and we anticipate this will grow significantly in the coming years.”

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The local business directory that helped JR Hartley find his book on fly fishing is set to go out of print.

The Yellow Pages will no longer be published on paper from next year onwards, more than five decades after it launched in the UK.

Its owner, Yell, has announced that the first of its 104 final editions will be distributed in Kingston next January.

A year later, a final directory will be sent out in Brighton, where it was first published in 1966.

Yell, the UK operation owned by Hibu, is going fully digital and says that it hopes to “help a million businesses be found, chosen and trusted by more customers online by 2020”.

A household staple – and handy doorstop – for years, Yellow Pages was known for its advertisements, among them the JR Hartley classic and the one featuring a hungover teenager in desperate need of a French polisher.

Richard Hanscott, chief executive of Yell, said: “After 51 years in production Yellow Pages is a household name and we’re proud to say that we still have customers who’ve been with us from the very first Yellow Pages edition in 1966.

“How many brands can say they’ve had customers with them for over 50 years?”

Commenting on why the company is ending the print edition, Mr Hanscott said: “Like many businesses, Yell has found that succeeding in digital demands constant change and innovation. We’re well placed to continue to help local businesses and consumers be successful online, both now and in the future.”

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Renault-Nissan and Kia are the latest car companies to launch car trade-in schemes, aimed at persuading UK customers to swap older, more polluting, car models for new ones.

Earlier Volkswagen and Toyota announced diesel scrappage schemes, joining BMW, Ford, Hyundai, Mercedes-Benz and Vauxhall who have all launched schemes.

The car companies will accept trade-ins from any brand registered before 2010.

It comes as the “toughest ever” new-car emissions tests begin to be rolled out.

Kia and Renault are offering £2,000 off new models, for part-exchanged vehicles, all of which will be taken off the road.

Nissan is calling its scheme a “switch” scheme since not all the cars traded in will be scrapped. The firm is also offering a £2,000 incentive and encouraging customers to consider buying their all-electric Leaf model.

VW will give discounts of up to £6,000 to trade in diesel vehicles when buying a new car. Meanwhile, Toyota is offering up to £4,000 off models more than seven years old.

Amongst the biggest firms marketing cars in the UK only Peugeot, Landrover, Honda, Citroen, Fiat and Volvo, have not announced trade-in schemes.

Car manufacturers have been under increasing political pressure, especially in Germany, to encourage consumers to buy less polluting cars.

It follows VW’s “Dieselgate” scandal, in which 11 million vehicles worldwide were found to have cheated on emissions tests.

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VW’s UK scheme, which includes all its UK brands – including Audi, Seat, Skoda and VW Commercial Vehicles – follows an initiative launched in Germany.

VW’s German scheme offered a discount of up to 10,000 euros (£9,000) to trade in diesel vehicles.

UK trade-ins

Its UK scheme will apply to any diesel vehicle that has emissions standards lower than Euro 5 and was registered before 2010.

Incentives range from £1,800 off a new VW Up! to £6,000 off a Sharan people carrier.

Electric and hybrid vehicles, which attract government grants, will be included in the scheme.

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Tim Urquhart, principal analyst at IHS Automotive, said the move was both about restoring VW’s credibility after “dieselgate” and boosting sales.

“We’ve seen a bit of a drop in the UK car market this year after years of really accelerated growth. I think the manufacturers are looking to get people into their showrooms,” he told the BBC’s Today programme.

“At the same time VW are showing they are being socially responsible. They are getting some of these older diesel vehicles off the roads.”

Positive publicity

Jim Holder, editorial director of Haymarket Automotive, told the BBC that VW’s scrappage incentives would vary from country to country, due to factors such as transport costs and vehicles being cheaper in its home market.

However, he said VW would probably have pitched their discounts in order to compete with rival schemes in the UK market.

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VW’s UK scheme offers substantially higher discounts than some of its competitors, which seem to hover around the £2,000 mark as an upper limit.

However, Mr Holder said it was not clear what impact the VW scheme would have on vehicle sales.

“Owners of older vehicles typically don’t have the money to spend on a new vehicle, even with these discounts – in normal circumstances it would be far more likely that they would trade up to another, less old, used car.”

‘Win-win solution’

Toyota’s scheme runs from 1 September to 31 December and is open to any vehicle more than seven years old.

Customers can get a discount of £2,000 off models including Aygo, Prius and Hilux, and £4,000 off a Land Cruiser.

Paul Van der Burgh, Toyota GB managing director, said: “Our scrappage scheme is a win-win solution. Motorists can dispose of their older vehicles and have access to our cleaner, more efficient model range.”

Tough new tests

It comes as tougher emissions tests begin to be rolled out across the European Union on Friday.

As well as a new laboratory test, all newly launched car models will have to undergo robust “on-road” testing before they go on sale.

The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders said the tests would better reflect modern driving habits. They will also be more stringent than any other vehicle testing regime in the world.

Chief executive Mike Hawes said: “Combined, these new and demanding tests will soon give consumers emissions performance information that is far closer to what they experience behind the wheel.

“They will also inspire greater confidence that the new cars they buy are not only the cleanest, but the most fuel efficient ever produced.”

Premier League clubs took their transfer deadline day spending to a record £210m with a late flurry of deals but some of the highest-profile moves of the window failed to materialise.

Despite top-flight clubs’ total summer outlay reaching £1.4bn – another record – Alexis Sanchez, Virgil van Dijk, Riyad Mahrez, Thomas Lemar, Diego Costa and Ross Barkley all remained at their clubs.

The deadline-day record – breaking last year’s £155m mark – was only confirmed well after the 23:00 BST deadline.

Chelsea’s £35m signing of Danny Drinkwater and Mamadou Sakho’s £26m move to Crystal Palace were both announced after 01:00 BST.

Chelsea signed Davide Zappacosta, Spurs recruited Swansea striker Fernando Llorente for £15m and the Welsh club replaced him with Wilfried Bony for £12m – all after the window had closed.

Philippe Coutinho, the subject of a rejected £114m bid from Barcelona earlier in August, remains a Liverpool player but could still move as the Spanish window does not close until 23:00 BST on Friday. Mahrez and Costa have also both been linked with moves to Spain, although the interest in those cases is less clear-cut.

Big deals from earlier in the day included:

See a full list of completed deals here.

Premier League eclipses Europe as records tumble

The £1.4bn spent by Premier League clubs this summer eclipsed the previous record of £1.120bn and is almost £1bn more than was paid out in transfer fees just five years ago, with clubs each spending an average of £71m (up from £58m in 2016).

Despite Manchester City’s failure to sign deadline-day targets Sanchez and West Brom defender Jonny Evans, Pep Guardiola’s side led the way – their £215m outlay is the biggest by any club in any transfer window.

Six of the top 10 spending windows for individual clubs have come this summer, with Paris St-Germain (Neymar for £200m) and Barcelona (Ousmane Dembele for up to £135.5m) making the two biggest signings of all time. PSG have effectively committed to an additional £165.7m outlay to turn Kylian Mbappe’s loan deal from Monaco into a permanent move next summer.

The Premier League clubs’ ability to pay such vast sums is largely linked to the fact they are entering the second season of a three-year £5.136bn TV deal.

Key findings from Deloitte’s Sports Business Group

• Premier League clubs’ summer spending as a proportion of estimated 2017-18 revenue is 31%.
• Four clubs received more than they spent in transfer fees – Swansea City, Arsenal, Burnley and Stoke City.
• Since the introduction of the transfer window system in January 2003, gross player transfer spending has exceeded £10.3bn.
• Championship clubs spent £195m on player transfers in the summer 2017 transfer window, a decrease from the £215m spent in 2016.

Dan Jones, partner in the Sports Business Group at Deloitte, said: “Premier League clubs have broken their own record for transfer expenditure for the sixth summer in a row.

“When analysed in the context of generating record broadcast, commercial and matchday revenues, Premier League clubs are spending well within their means.

“While the transfer record for a single player has again been broken by a major European club, the Premier League’s clubs enjoy an unrivalled depth of purchasing power, as a result of the league’s relatively equal – and transparent – distribution of broadcast revenues.”

Deals that didn’t happen

The new records set could have been much higher – by more than £200m – had some of the window’s highest-profile proposed transfers materialised.

• Arsenal’s Sanchez had looked close to a move to Premier League rivals Manchester City, for an initial £55m. That deal was dependant on Monaco’s Lemar joining the Gunners as his replacement. The clubs had agreed a fee of about £90m, which would have made him the third most expensive player ever, but the France forward is thought to have turned down that move – which in turn saw the Sanchez deal collapse.
• Everton midfielder Barkley, who is currently injured, turned down a £30m move to Chelsea – after reportedly having his medical – despite the fact he has one year left on his Toffees deal, and he will not sign a new contract.
• Southampton defender Van Dijk has been training with the club’s youth team since trying to push through a move to Liverpool in the summer. The transfer never materialised, so he will have to stay at St Mary’s until January at least.
• Chelsea striker Costa is thought to be in his native Brazil after being told he was not in boss Antonio Conte’s plans. Unless his situation changes, he will not be playing any football for four months at least.
• Leicester winger Mahrez was allowed to stay behind by Algeria to “formalise” a move, but it does not appear that anyone actually made a bid to sign him, with Roma not following up interest from earlier in the window.
• Manchester City ended their interest in West Brom defender Evans after they could not sell Eliaquim Mangala to Crystal Palace.

Deadline-day transfers you may have missed

England Under-17 forward Jadon Sancho joined Borussia Dortmund from Manchester City for about £10m, and he was instantly handed Ousmane Dembele’s old number seven shirt.

Another England youth international moved to Germany, with Liverpool loaning Ryan Kent to Freiburg. The Reds also loaned Divock Origi to Wolfsburg.

Harry Redknapp’s Birmingham broke their club record to sign Brentford winger Jota for a fee in excess of £6m.

Lazio signed former Manchester United winger Nani from Valencia on a season-long loan.

Stoke City sent club record signing Giannelli Imbula (Toulouse) and forward Bojan Krkic (Alaves) out on loan for the season.

Arsenal sent forward Lucas Perez to Deportivo La Coruna on loan, a year after paying the same club £17.1m to sign him.

English midfielder Ravel Morrison left Lazio to join Mexican side Atlas.

How to announce a transfer – 2017 style

This was the year transfer announcements became ever more creative.

Most clubs no longer tweet a simple picture of their new signing with a link to a story on the club website.

Staged ‘kidnap’ videos, pretend WhatsApp conversations and computer games are among the dozens of ways players have been unveiled.

Read more from BBC Three here.

What do the experts think of deadline day 2017?

Former England midfielder Trevor Sinclair: “One of the biggest surprises for me was the lack of planning at Arsenal. They were not able to react to Manchester City’s interest in Alexis Sanchez. The rush for Thomas Lemar – after Wenger had said any deal for him was dead – was just too late.”

Ex-Republic of Ireland winger Kevin Kilbane: “If you just look at Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s move to Liverpool, for £40m, that’s a transfer that four years ago would have been about £5m-£10m, given that he is a player in the final year of his contract.”

Read more of the BBC pundits’ thoughts here.

A first version of this article was published using figures from Deloitte. It has since been updated to include Premier League figures.

G4S has suspended nine members of staff from an immigration removal centre near Gatwick Airport, following a BBC Panorama undercover investigation.

The programme says it has covert footage recorded at Brook House showing officers “mocking, abusing and assaulting” people being held there.

It says it has seen “widespread self-harm and attempted suicides” in the centre, and that drug use is “rife”.

G4S said it is aware of the claims and “immediately” began an investigation.

The security firm said it had not been provided with recorded evidence, but added: “There is no place for the type of conduct described.”

‘Toxic mix’

The programme, to be aired on Monday, uses footage it says was recorded by a custody officer at the centre, which holds detainees facing deportation from the UK.

Panorama says it has seen “chaos, incompetence and abuse” at the centre, which it describes as a “toxic mix”.

It claims detainees who have overstayed visas or are seeking asylum in the UK can share rooms with foreign national criminals who have finished prison sentences.

It also alleges that some detainees have been held in the privately-run centre for “many months, even years.”

G4S said the staff suspensions were a “precaution” but it has reported the allegations to “the relevant authorities”.

“Such behaviour is not representative of the many G4S colleagues who do a great job, often in difficult and challenging circumstances,” Jerry Petherick, managing director for G4S’ custodial and detention services in the UK, said,

“Once we have seen the evidence and concluded the investigation, I will ensure that we take the appropriate action.

“We continue to focus on the care and wellbeing of detainees at Brook House.”

‘Dignity for detainees’

In response to the Panorama investigation, a Home Office spokesman said: “We condemn any actions that put the safety or dignity of immigration removal centre detainees at risk.

“We are clear that all detainees should be treated with dignity and respect and we expect G4S to carry out a thorough investigation into these allegations and that all appropriate action be taken.”

Brook House, which is operated privately by G4S on behalf of the Home Office, holds almost 400 adult males asylum seekers, illegal immigrants and foreign national offenders.

The centre was opened in 2009 but a year later was branded “fundamentally unsafe”.

A further report in 2012 found there were still “significant concerns”, but in 2013 inspectors saw sustained improvement.

The most recent report from HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, released in March this year, said some detainees had been held for excessive periods due to “unreasonable delays in immigration decision making”.

The report also described the residential units as “very closely resembling the conditions found in prisons”, saying problems were “exacerbated by poor ventilation and unsatisfactory sanitary facilities”.

Watch Panorama – Undercover: Britain’s Immigration Secrets – on Monday 4 September at 21:00 BST on BBC One and afterwards on BBC iPlayer.