Goldman Sachs the winner in Spanish soccer deals

With Spain’s top soccer clubs battling to raise much-needed new financing, one winner is already emerging: Goldman Sachs Group.

The US lender will lead a €1bn syndicated credit facility to fund CVC Capital Partners’ investment in Spain’s top soccer league. The deal shortly follows a Goldman Sachs-led private placement for FC Barcelona, one of the most storied clubs in La Liga and an opponent of the CVC plan because of concern about the loss of broadcasting money.

The pandemic has brought European soccer clubs to their knees, hit by a sudden drop in revenues while still paying players hefty salaries. Barcelona shocked the sports world last week when its most-famous player, Lionel Messi, left the Catalan club because it could no longer keep him financially.

The parlous state of football finances, meanwhile, is offering investment banks the opportunity to earn fees by bringing in new investors to plug an urgent hole. Goldman Sachs’s involvement follows a failed attempt to sell a stake in Italy’s top league — for which the bank had lined up financing — and JPMorgan Chase’s ill-fated backing of the breakaway European Super League.

Goldman Sachs has been working for months to find new lenders for Barcelona. Next week, it will close the private placement of €525m of notes that are already priced, according to people familiar with the matter. They asked not to be named because they are not authorised to talk about the transaction, which will help the club refinance debt and boost liquidity. Spokespeople for Barcelona and Goldman Sachs declined to comment.

The New York-based bank is also leading the lending syndicate for CVC’s €2.7bn investment that will give the private equity firm a 10% stake in a new company housing all of the Spanish soccer league’s businesses, subsidiaries and joint ventures.

The deal is set for approval by the required majority of Spanish teams, but it is being fought by Barcelona and Real Madrid. The country’s two biggest clubs fear they will lose a slice of their broadcasting rights for the next 50 years. Real Madrid announced this week it will take legal action against CVC.

Bloomberg