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Spanish LaLiga club Barcelona are planning on listing its Barca Media digital arm on the Nasdaq Stock Market after entering into talks with Swiss venture capital firm Mountain Partners over the formation of a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC).
According to Spanish newspaper Expansión, Barca Media could start trading by the end of the year. The report states that Barcelona is in talks to merge its digital business with a SPAC supported by Mountain Partners.
The talks are said to be in the initial stages. The plan would see the club retain an 80-per-cent stake in Barca Media, with the SPAC to own the remaining 20 per cent.
According to Expansión, Barca Media would be valued at around €1bn ($1.1bn) following the transaction.
Barcelona’s online video operations are run by Barca Media, which also manages the club’s digital and esports ventures.
In April, Barcelona announced that it would be closing Barça TV after informing TBSC Telefónica, the company that managed the in-house television channel, that it will not renew the contract for the provision of services. The decision was reported to be a cost-cutting measure as the club sought to meet financial fair play rules.
The announcement came after Barcelona officially presented the €1.45bn financing deal that was announced for its Espai Barça infrastructure project, enabling work to commence in earnest on the redevelopment of its Camp Nou stadium.
Barcelona has a number of financing operations in place, the most recent of which came in August as it announced the sale of a 24.5-per-cent stake in its Barça Studios production division to Orpheus Media, a production entity run by Mediapro co-founder Jaume Roures, for €100m.
The deal with Orpheus represented the fourth ‘palanca’ (or ‘lever’) open to Barcelona’s directors to clear debts and meet LaLiga’s strict financial rules.
It followed the sale, last June and July, of two batches of the club’s future LaLiga media rights to US investment firm Sixth Street for a total of €667m. The club also offloaded an initial 24.5-per-cent-stake in Barça Studios to the Chiliz-owned fan token and engagement platform Socios.com for €100m.
Earlier this week, Barcelona announced that it generated record revenue of €97.6m from new sponsorships during the 2022-23 season, with a wide-ranging deal with streaming service Spotify boosting the figures.