The financing of the 1,500 million to make the Espai Barça a reality has entered its final stretch. The negotiation is like a football game, with investors asking for explanations about the club's plans in the event that it ends up being left out of European competitions and the president, Joan Laporta, explaining himself. It must be taken into account that one of the insurmountable conditions of this financing is that the Camp Nou, Barça's main tangible asset, will not be mortgaged, which leaves the financiers with the only guarantees of additional future income generated by the new facilities .
That is why they want to make sure that Barcelona have a solid management plan for that worst possible scenario. What in business terms is called a management or strategic plan.
The proposal that is on the table has not changed, 1,500 million euros, in several tranches, adapted to the demands of investors, since not all of them want to stay for the entire duration of the program and therefore there are different deadlines. In addition, in the first installment, the club must allocate some 200 million to repay bridge loans advanced by Goldman Sachs, the North American bank that directs the operation.
Since this past Monday, a senior executive from the financial institution has been directing the negotiations on site and receiving explanations from the club.
A few days ago, the investors, through the aforementioned bank, sent a long score of questions to Laporta to find out how he planned to deal with the potential negative consequences of the Negreira case. Concerns that grew once UEFA publicly announced that it was opening an investigation into the case.
The financing conditions establish 6% interest, and the club had raised the possibility of refinancing the operation from the fifth year of validity of the loan, a complex clause if one takes into account that for several years, those of construction, the club was not going to amortize capital, as it had not yet obtained the expected new income.
In the offices of the blaugrana entity they hope to present a final signed agreement very soon. To this end, the board chaired by Joan Laporta meets today at the Camp Nou with this matter as the main item on the agenda. The club imposed the date of March 31 (tomorrow, Friday) as the limit to sign the financing. Tomorrow is also the day that Barcelona must notify UEFA where they would play their matches (the Lluís Companys stadium) next season.
Despite the fact that this campaign did not exceed the first phase of the Champions League, Barcelona entered 70 million for this competition plus half a million for its contest in the Europa League. Money that would have to be obtained through another chapter if the Barcelona team is sanctioned by UEFA. The governing body of European football has to determine if, after initiating the aforementioned investigation, it opens the corresponding file.
