Juve Prepare To Rival United In Rich List
MILAN (Reuters) - Juventus may have suffered a setback in the Champions League but the Italian club is racing ahead with plans to become one of the world's richest clubs.
Juve, beaten 3-1 at English side Arsenal in group D on Tuesday, said it would price shares in its forthcoming stock market flotation at between 3.50 and 4.20 euros.
This would value the company at up to 437 million euros, according to its initial public offering (IPO) prospectus.
An IPO marks the first time a company's shares are offered for sale to the public. Juventus said on Wednesday it expects to end its June 2001-June 2002 financial year in line with past years.
'We've been in profit in the last five financial years and in the last three we've paid out a dividend, and we think we will continue with this track record this year too,' Juventus chief executive Antonio Giraudo told reporters on the fringes of the club's IPO presentation.
The IPO will make Turin-based Juventus a stock market competitor to the world's richest soccer club, England's Manchester United.
United's market valuation currently stands at bout 340 million pounds.
Juve, one of the biggest names in world soccer, wants to capitalise on its record as the most successful club in Italian history to raise cash to develop off-field business activities.
Juventus have won 25 league titles, nine Italian cups, two European cups and three UEFA cups.
SHARE OFFER
Of 38.7 million shares on offer, 16.9 million would be new shares and the rest would come from the 99.6 percent stake in the club owned by Ifi, a holding of the powerful Agnelli family whose empire includes carmaker Fiat.
At least 13.5 million shares, or 35 percent of the offer, would be reserved for individual investors with a maximum of 400,000 shares reserved for employees.
The offer was due to run from December 10-14 and a final price for the shares on offer would be set on December 14, the prospectus said.
Turin-based Juventus saw net profit in July to September, the first quarter of its 2001-2002 financial year, jump to 56.8 million euros from 4.4 million in the same year-ago period.
The profit was boosted by capital gains of 124 million euros on the sale of players including French World Cup star Zinedine Zidane to Real Madrid in a deal valued at some 70 million euros.
During the period, Juventus said it had bought an area of 500,000 square metres on the outskirts of Turin where it plans to build a sports centre.
The club has separate plans to upgrade the Stadio delle Alpi where it plays its home games.
In the year to June 30, 2001, Juventus made a net profit of 5.8 million euros, up five percent on the previous year.
The board proposed a dividend of 1.1 million euros, up five percent from the previous year.
