Barcelona President Joan Laporta to put $1b asset on the stock market pending approval of members

Barcelona President Joan Laporta has maintained that while he is in charge, they will never be a private company but remain owned by their members. Yet members may soon be asking what exactly they still own.

Following the sale of 25% of their TV rights for 25 years, and then the sale of 49.5% of Barca Vision last summer, previously referred to as Barca Studios by the club, the members have lost significant parts of their patrimony, and perhaps more pertinently, large parts of the money-making sections of the club.

Now, following the resale of a percentage of Barca Vision, Barcelona and Laporta have announced that Barca Media will be partnering with Swiss venture capitalist firm Mountain Ventures in order to capìtalise on the asset.

The plan, as per previous reports, and now confirmed, is to put Barca Media on the stock market.

Barca Media is the image distribution rights arm of Barcelona, and one of the most valuable assets the club has in terms of making money – it is projected to continue making profits for years to come. That includes content creation, distribution and commercialisation.

While Barcelona have not published the details of the agreement, the previous knowledge on the matter states that Barcelona and Mountain Ventures would use a Special Purchase Acquisition Company (SPAC) to put ‘BRME’ as it would be known on the stock market in the USA, also known as the NASDAQ.

The agreement would see Barcelona own 80% of the shares, while Moutain Ventures would have 20% – in total the company has been valued at around $1b, or €910m. If Barcelona so desire they could then sell further shares. However amongst that 80%, Barcelona only own 50.5% of them, meaning just over 40% of the shares would actually correspond to them. The other 49.5% are now owned by Libero (29.5%) Orpheus Media (10%) and Socios (10%), all of whom Barcelona have sold various parts of the company too. They would still own the majority of Barca Media, and with it decision-making powers, but in terms of the profits, Barcelona would see their share drop from 100% to 40% in the space of a year for arguably their most profitable asset going forward, alongside TV rights.

This agreement is subject to the approval of Barcelona’s members at a general assembly vote and those of Mountain Ventures. Once the agreement is ratified, Barca Media would be expected to enter the stock market in December.

While the deal to sell Barcelona’s TV rights was a major loss of a major source of income for an immediate cash boost, it is at least temporary (25 years). In this case they would face a much more permanent loss of assets. He will argue that they would not reach the figures they will with the help and assistance of these companies, and that overall, it will be profitable for Barcelona. Laporta’s box has been opened, for better or worse, and it will be tricky to close it again.