Juventus Football Club SpA fell the most in more than four years in Milan after the team said Friday that it’s planning a €200 million ($211 million) capital increase.
(Bloomberg) — Juventus Football Club SpA fell the most in more than four years in Milan after the team said Friday that it’s planning a €200 million ($211 million) capital increase.
Shares in the Turin-based club known as Juve dropped as much as 16% on Monday, the biggest intraday decline since March 2020.
The announcement that Juve’s board approved a capital hike backed by the Agnelli family’s Exor NV, which holds a 64% stake, marks the latest move for funding by the team.
Juve has now sought about €900 million from the market over the last four years in the wake of a string of full-year losses.
Clubs elsewhere in Europe have opted to load up on debt to finance spending rather than selling more shares, though the practice is largely frowned upon by fans concerned about the impact on financial sustainability.
Juventus approved a €400 million capital increase in 2021 as part of an effort to offset pandemic-related fallout and completed a €300 million increase in 2019.
The team’s entire board — along with then-Chairman Andrea Agnelli, one of the heirs to the billionaire family that’s owned the club since the 1920s — resigned last year in the wake of a probe into company filings. Juve has denied any wrongdoing.
Juve was subsequently docked 10 points during Italy’s 2023 Serie A football season, and then failed to qualify for the lucrative European Champions League competition.
Exor in September denied media reports that it’s planning to move on from its holding in the club to focus more on activities and investments outside Italy.
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