Former Valencia FC president plans takeover bid for La Liga club at reduced price

Former Valencia FC president plans a takeover bid for the La Liga club at a reduced price.

Former vice-president Miguel Zorío is believed to have ‘first refusal’ in the event that Peter Lim wants to sell the Ché team.

FORMER Valencia FC vice-president Miguel Zorío has revealed his latest takeover bid for the La Liga club at a significantly reduced price. Chelsea’s Russian owner Roman Abramovich is also reportedly in the running to buy the Spanish side from current owner Peter Lim.

During a press conference on Wednesday, April 27, Zorío revealed his offer of €212 million, which is €36 million less than the last offer presented, which he said was “as a result of the losses suffered by the club in the last fiscal year.”

Zorío said in September 2021 that he was willing to present an offer worth €368 million to buy the shares from Lim and finish the works on the new stadium on Avenida de Cortes Valencianas. However, during the press conference on April 27 he revealed that any new offers from now on will continue to decline as long as Lim continues to refuse his proposals.

Zorío predicted that the club would begin to struggle further financially come the summer. “In June there will be a catastrophe within the club because Valencia CF is unable to generate enough income to close its year in profit,” he said.

He added: “Peter Lim has tried to get 450 million euros for Valencia CF through an office in London, but no one will pay that for the club.”

Zorío also said that his offer would include the construction of the new stadium in the next three years.

Valencia FC notified the Generalitat Valenciana at the end of 2021 that it would be allocating “the majority” of the funds it would receive as a result of the agreement between LaLiga and the CVC Capital Partners fund to resume work on its new stadium, which have been stopped for more than ten years. The Ché team can allocate up to €80 million to complete infrastructure works.

First refusal

“The fundamental thing is the right of first refusal, it is not important for Lim to come out and say that it is not for sale,” he said.

Referring to the first refusal clause for small shareholders, Zorío said: “It only thing that Amadeo (Salvo) and Aurelio (Martínez) did well and they did it without realising it because otherwise, they would not have done.

“We have fifteen days and that is what will force them to go through here,” Zorío continued.

“When you have a firm offer, you must present it at a meeting and if it is matched, it stays here. They put that clause and they did it thinking that nobody would be able to mount an offer because that cannot be achieved unless you have worked on it,” he added.

“The fact, if he doesn’t want to sell, no one can force him, but Valencia will lose about seventy million this year and a similar figure next year,” he said.

“The party is going to cost him 50 million every year. He cannot build the stadium as he wanted and that panorama is going to take three years. So he must decide between putting 150 million or collecting 212,” he explained.

“I don’t know anyone who likes to lose fifty million a year, no matter how lucky they are,” he said.

He added: “It is very likely that they will consider it in the summer. With an expired ATE, without being able to do business with the old Mestalla, without being able to do business with players because it is a team of rented players and with a stadium where they tell him everything.

“If it is something, he is not stupid, so he will choose to sell and if he does, the important thing is that we are prepared,” he concluded.

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