FC Barcelona has definitively closed the financing of the 1,500 million euros of the Espai Barça in corporate bonds. As reported by El Confidencial and confirmed by La Vanguardia, the agreement was closed yesterday with the representatives of Goldman Sachs traveling to Barcelona before the classic cup match against Real Madrid. In addition to Goldman Sachs, the JP Morgan fund has also mediated in the operation to convince investors.
The financing agreement has been closed with various tranches according to the conditions set by each investor. 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. The interest will finally be 5.50 percent, although the club insists on being able to refinance it from the fifth year, with the aim that this rate can be lowered and renegotiated once the new stadium is up and running and the club can start to repay the borrowed money.
Not all investors will contribute the same. It should be remembered that the financial entities sent through Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan a long score of questions to Laporta to find out how he intended 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. After receiving the answers from the president, some investors have wanted to establish a plan b of equivalent income in case Barça ended up expelled from the Champions League. As an alternative, Barcelona will propose a tour of the first team through various countries and other friendlies with which they can enter a similar amount.
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.
During the negotiation process, which was to be closed at the end of March, there have been several discrepancies. The delicate economic situation of Barça and the instability of the financial market caused some executives to raise the possibility of postponing the project until the outlook for the banking and investment sector improves. This was expressed in the last meeting of the board that lasted for more than 8 hours. But in the end, they opted to achieve the goal set for financing.
In fact, the club communicated last week to the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) that its first team will play its home matches next season at the Estadi OlÃmpic LluÃs Companys in Montjuïc, information that the federation must notify, to its time, to UEFA. Meanwhile, in Montjuïc the starts have already begun to accommodate the installation to the needs of Barcelona.
