"The minimum amount we need is 600 million euros, and that is what we are going to achieve by activating these two levers", said the president Joan Laporta during the assembly of compromising partners that on June 16 gave the green light to the board to to sell 25% of its television rights and also 49.9% of Barça Licensing
The levers will not be activated in unison because the board is still studying various options offered by the market. But time is running against him. Before Thursday, June 30, you must activate at least a minimum percentage of some of the economic levers to avoid closing the year with losses for the third consecutive year. Before, this circumstance meant the resignation of the board that was in charge in the Barça club and the calling of elections as marked by article 67 of the Statutes. But it should be remembered that at the shareholders' meeting that was held in October 2021, Laporta approved the temporary suspension of the article in the statuary reform.
Even so, the Blaugrana directive has worked against the clock throughout the weekend with the aim of being able to go to the notary between today and tomorrow to close a first sale of 10 percent of the television rights for 25 years with what is expected to enter about 200 million euros that will allow closing the course with profits.
As this newspaper has learned, the board has practically ruled out agreeing with CVC outside the LaLiga Impulso project due to the possible conflict of interest that it could entail for LaLiga, chaired by Javier Tebas. Yes, he is still trading with Goldman Sachs. It happens that the investment banking group is putting a lot of pressure on the conditions since it currently owns 11% of the television rights as collateral for the credit of 525 million euros to be repaid in 15 years.
This credit, approved at the assembly held in June 2021, served to meet the most immediate financial needs of the club, such as the payment of player salaries. Another channel that has been activated in recent weeks is to negotiate the sale with Bank of America. Some of these options must be activated before June 30, the day on which Ousmane Dembélé's contract also ends.
During the month of July, the club will work to activate the sale of another 15 percent of the television rights for which it hopes to earn another 300 million. The sale of up to 49.9 percent of BLM will also continue to be negotiated. This operation is, for the moment, on standby after the negotiations with the company Fanatics and Investindustrial, which proposed an injection of 200 million euros, have stalled.
The operation fell through due to Laporta's demand not to want to give up so much power in management. One of the red lines that the directive requires is that at the moment in which the benefits reach a value set by the board, Barça can repurchase the part sold. Experts point out that it will be difficult to sell this asset due to the complexity of its structure and the fact that there are stores like the one at Camp Nou that generate a lot of income and others that are in deficit.
