The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has reported a surprisingly surplus of $73.9 million (£57.6 million/€63.6 million) for 2019, as surging financial income comfortably overturned the Lausanne body’s operational deficit.
The result is of limited significance in a non-Games year.
It should nonetheless stand the masters of the Olympics universe in good stead, as they battle a coronavirus pandemic, which has already forced the postponement of the Movement’s main cash cow – the Summer Olympics – and will make a deep mark on this year’s accounts.
By way of comparison, in 2015 – the equivalent year in the prior Olympic cycle – the IOC posted a deficit of $325.8 million (£254.1 million/€280.2 million).
In 2017, another non-Games year, there was a surplus of just $8.7 million (£6.8 million/€7.5 million).
Financial income in the latest period amounted to $159.6 million (£124.5 million/€137.3 million), almost six times the 2018 contribution of $27 million (£21 million/€23.2 million).
An explanatory note attributes the bulk of the improvement to a “fair value increase” of $81.9 million (£63.9 million/€70.4 million) in the IOC’s huge store of financial assets.
These stood at a towering $4.7 billion (£3.7 billion/€4 billion) on December 31, 2019.
The IOC’s The Olympic Partner (TOP) worldwide sponsorship programme continued to power away, delivering another $548.2 million (£427.6 million/€471.5 million) of revenue.