Barça is on the ball with plans for a €1.5 billion bond issue

FC BARCELONA is putting the finishing touches to plans for financing its Espai Barça project with a €1.5 billion bond issue.

Amongst other plans, this will finance a complete remodelling of the club’s Camp Nou football ground.

As investors will expect an interest rate of around 6 per cent costing the club an annual €90 million, the market is waiting to see how and where it will seek the funding to meet these extra payments.

Little has gone smoothly for the club since announcing its plans to finance the Espai Barça project.

Initially, Barcelona had hoped for a €1.5 billion private placement of bonds on Wall Street, split into three €500-million tranches. The first would have been due on 30 June 2032, and the second on June 30, 2045. The club would have paid interest on the third tranche only until 2045 despite maturing on 30 June 2052.

These plans came to nothing.  Beset by the Negrerira scandal over bribes to the vice-president of the football referees’ committee, which coincided with last March’s banking crisis, the club had to rethink its plans.

This involved reducing the number of bonds and taking on a bank debt that will be guaranteed by JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs.

Some finer points have still to be decided, including the final amount of both the bonds and the bank loan. Sources close to the process suggested that ultimately the bond issue would be somewhere under €1 billion and the loan somewhat over €500 million.