Barcelona (EFE) .
The aforementioned figure covers the total cost of the works and the financial structure has been closed with “some of the main internationally prestigious financial entities”, as announced by the club in a statement.
It has different tranches at 5, 7, 9, 20 and 24 years, and a flexible structure, which has a grace period. In addition, the Catalan club will begin to repay the operation once the stadium works have been completed, with the income generated by Spotify Camp Nou, which is expected to be approximately 247 million euros.
In the statement, the entity highlights that it continues to advance, thus, in its strategic plan and in the development of the Espai Barça project, achieving “maximum flexibility to find the best proposals in terms of cost and time” to carry out the project .
And he appreciates the “efforts” of the members of the board of directors and the club’s own teams that have been complemented by ‘partners’ such as the US investment banks Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan, the JLL consultancy, the Pérez-Lorca law firms and DLA Piper, the financial firm Key Capital Partners, as well as Legends and IPG 360, among others.
“The purpose is to combine the experience and knowledge of the club’s teams and professionals together with the best practices from the different fields associated with the Espai Barça project,” reads the statement.
Works can start in summer
With the financing already closed, Barcelona will be able to start the remodeling works of the Spotify Camp Nou this summer, which will force the first men’s soccer team to play their home games at the Lluís Companys Olympic Stadium until November 2024, when it is expected that return to the Barcelona fiefdom.
The Barca board of directors thus unravels the last and most important obstacle to carry out the remodeling works of the stadium that will be led by the Turkish construction company Limak, which in January this year was appointed by the club to carry out the project.
The objective of the Barcelona club was to close the financing agreement before March 31, 2023, but the investors and the club gave themselves more time to finish closing the last fringes of the credit.
The investigation of justice for the millionaire payments of the entity to the former vice president of the Technical Committee of Referees (CTA), José María Enríquez Negreira, is one of the issues that explain the reason for the delay in announcing the agreement.
The press conference that the president of Barcelona, Joan Laporta, offered last week to give explanations about the so-called ‘Negreira case’ and the subsequent meetings that he held with the LaLiga clubs and with the president of UEFA, Aleksander Ceferin, would have helped unravel the alliance with investors.
The Espai Barça, a project that began in 2014
The long road to start the remodeling works of the Camp Nou. Nine years have passed since the Barça members approved the project by a large majority in the referendum held on April 5, 2014.
Meanwhile, the entity, at that time chaired by Josep Maria Bartomeu, had to agree with the Barcelona City Council on the urban plan and the building permit to transform the surroundings of the stadium.
During this period, the club demolished the Miniestadi, the subsidiary’s stronghold, and built the Johan Cruyff Stadium in the Ciudad Deportiva Joan Gamper, inaugurated in August 2019.
But the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in the first quarter of 2020 and the resignation of Bartomeu as president in October of that same year delayed the start of the works.
With the victory of Joan Laporta in the presidential elections held in March 2021, the incoming board of directors decided to consult the partner again for his opinion on Espai Barça.
The reasons for the partner to speak again were the years that had passed since the first consultation, the increase in the price of the project (initially it was estimated at 600 million), the need to request a loan from investment banks and the changes that have been made.
One of the most important projects of the club
On October 23, 2021, the general assembly of delegate members already approved the financing of 1,500 million euros, but Laporta finally agreed to hold another referendum in which the entire social mass of the Barça entity could decide on one of the most important projects in the club’s history.
On December 19, 2021, 87.8% of voters approved that the club could request financing to run the Espai Barça. Almost a year and a half later, FC Barcelona has convinced investors that they will allow the old Camp Nou, inaugurated on September 24, 1957, to resemble a 21st century stadium.
“This operation confirms, once again, the club’s credibility within the financial markets regarding the Camp Nou Spotify project, epicenter of Espai Barça, an essential project to keep FC Barcelona in the leadership of world sport, one of the pillars of the economic recovery and future viability of the Club, and an instrument that allows the continuity of the governance model, where the more than 146,000 members of the Club are owners”, concludes the FC Barcelona statement.