Barcelona President Joan Laporta has reassured fans about the economic future of the club, as a summer of major sales reportedly approaches. One of the key reasons has been the non-payment of their asset sales in Barca Vision, with €40m missing from their budget, and another €40-60m due this summer for the second payments.
There has been talk that Laporta and his board members are looking at potentially losing just under €20m from their personal funds, due to bank guarantees they put down last summer in order to register players.
Laporta has told MD that they are in legal proceedings with German investment fund Libero, who have not stumped up the money agreed during the sale of 24.5% of Barca Vision.
“We are suing Libero. They did not pay the €40m and we have sued. It is a company that is listed on the Frankfurt market and also gained an advantage from the contract with Barca. In fact, Libero’s group paid €20m that are there. There is a meeting with precisely them, not with Libero but with part of the group, because they have put in €20m and if they don’t put up the forty that they have to pay in this season, they will keep a token percentage of the company.”
🚨 Deco's plans for the summer. @amartiherrero
– Not sell key players
– Renew Araújo
– Extend loans for Cancelo and Félix
– Renew youngsters like Cubarsí. pic.twitter.com/CQM4XBkv38— barcacentre (@barcacentre) March 22, 2024
He also reassured that there was interest in buying up the shares that Libero had not paid for.
“It’s not just Libero, there are several options. We have a company that wants to put in a significant amount of money to buy 49%. Everything, from the Libero group as well, but for us it is the one that has 24%, among them a series of companies that hold 24.5% percent. And then there is Socios which also has the other 24.5%. And now we have a proposal from a company that wants to buy 49%, but since some do not want to sell, the situation, it is how it is is, or others are very interested in everything related to the Tokens issue. They are talking to Socios about this investment, to do it jointly with Socios.”
The Blaugrana are yet to sell any of their Barca Studios company either, responsible for audiovisual content the club produces. It is registered under the name Vestigia, which Laporta refers to here.
“And there is the issue of Vestigia, there is a meeting because they are interested. Vestigia wants to put in more money, but also wants the company to have more assets. If you remember, we provide the assets related to NFT’s, Web3 and Metaverse. We have more technological assets and we have more digital assets in Barca Studios and we have authorization from the assembly to sell 49%. And there we could also give more value to the company that became extinct, which was Bridgeburg, to make it more attractive to investors. We are not doing this at the moment because we did it precisely because we said hey, we will reserve these assets for the future. They are technological assets that we need someone to help us promote these businesses because there are reference partners or there are companies that are dedicated solely and exclusively to this.”
Many will point out that this is the third round of sales of these shares, and the Blaugrana have only received €60m of the €100m currently due. Equally, Libero’s decision not to pay up, combined with Barcelona’s increased need for money, will likely have reduced the value of these shares in the market too.
