Juventus Pays First Dividend to Agnellis
Copyright � 1999 Nando Media
Copyright � 1999 Agence France-Presse
TURIN, Oct 27 (Reuters) - Former European Cup champions Juventus made a profit for the third year running last season and expect to make another during this campaign, depending on their results on the pitch.
The Italian club, owned by the Agnelli family whose Fiat car factories dominate Turin, said on Wednesday it had made a net 10.1 billion lire ($5.50 million) in 1998/99.
It said it would pay a dividend to shareholders -- the first Italian club to do so.
Gross turnover rose by more than nine billion lire or six percent to 173 billion lire, it said in a statement.
The first division side is 99-percent owned by Agnelli family holding company IFI.
Juventus said 4.5 percent of last season's profits,
which fell from 16.3 billion lire in 1997/98, would be
paid out to shareholders.
"For 1999/2000 we expect to be in profit. This
prediction is however, as always, dependent on how the
season goes," Juventus said.
Juventus are second in Serie A, three points behind
Lazio.
In Italy, only Lazio is quoted on the bourse, where
its shares are highly volatile as investors gamble on
the prospect of television deals with almost every goal
scored.
However, AS Roma said on Wednesday it was seeking a
bourse listing by next April. Bologna has also been
eyeing the market.
($1=1836.0 Lire)
