From my point of view, it comes down to this.
Barça in the 4th tier of Spainish football won’t be of gain to any creditor, the value is in the brand and it being somewhat successful. But you can only suck so much blood out of a corpse, and the ones picking up the bill won’t be the US banks.
Normally when you build a new stadium (upgrade the current one), it is sound and an investment that pays itself off over time. Much more so than selling large chunks of future income to be able to roll forward debt so that the transfer budget isn’t impacted. And I am not disputing that it is the correct move for Barça to move forward with it now.
But what I can — guarantee — is that negotiating this debt with Goldman Sachs right now, that was not the best timing. It’s in fact the absolutely worst timing. Several banks have gone under just the last handful of weeks, and not only niche banks like Sillicon Valley Bank, a huge bank like Credit Suisse went under. Inflation is roaring in society for the first time in decades, mainly due to really high energy prices. And in addition, you have a Barça club in shambles (to say the least).
You tell me — which purpose does it suit best to drive to this right now? The fans who will be there for the rest of their life time and ‘pick up the bill’ in one way or the other? Look at Juve, a brand like Barca always get a second chance. The terms entered into today will be horrible. In who’s interest is it to not let the dust settle?
I would like to make a few points.
Barcelona already refinanced the debt before activating the levers. Due to the fact that there were presidential elections, Barcelona was without a president for many months and with the issue of the pandemic, it was unable to refinance the short-term debt into the long-term. Once Laporta was elected president, he asked Goldman Sachs for a loan.
€595M/10y/1.98% interest
With the levers, the losses of €150M last year and €200M this year were covered. In addition, 125 million of the Goldman Sachs credit was paid and they raised the salary limit to be able to reinforce the team. All this while returning to economic balance by eliminating salaries, amortizations and various end-of-contract bonuses.
The credit of 1,500 million with Goldman Sachs will be announced next week in principle with all the details. The information that exists now is the following:
Finally, the money will be contributed by more than 15 investors, and is divided as follows:
- 500 million of bank credit with Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan, to be repaid in five years at 6% interest
- 500 million more investors in the medium term, from seven to ten years and at 5% interest.
- 500 million from long-term investors, from 15 to 25 years and at 5.5% interest.
In principle there is talk that Barcelona will be able to renegotiate the interest rate after the fifth year.
The question that many ask is: how will Barça return the megalomaniac loan? That's where
InterMoney comes in.
What role will InterMoney S.G.F.T play?
The idea of the club is the constitution of an Asset Securitization Fund (FTA) that will be managed by the aforementioned external company.
The fund in question will be the owner of all the income generated by the new Espai Barça until the total return of the borrowed money, with a basic condition:
the first 100 million will be for the club, while the rest will go to the fund. Barça estimates that the new Espai Barça will generate about 347 million annually --176 kilos more than the current turnover--, although today the figure is only an approximation.
The strategy developed by Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan, with the participation of InterMoney as responsible for managing the FTA,
proposes that this fund stays about 80 million annually to repay the loan, while everything that exceeds that amount will return to the club in the form of income.
Of that €1,500M, a total of €200M will go to pay the bridge loan that was used to start the works.