The sale of 49.9 percent of BLM (Barça Licensing and Merchandising) It was one of the economic levers that he had planned Joan Laporta to arrive at positive net worth. At first, it seemed the most advanced and the first to be approved after the approval of the Assembly. However, in recent days there has been a script twist. And it is that in the Barça economic leadership it is no longer so clear to sell such a high percentage of BLM so as not to lose much of the control of the company.
In fact, the intention is not to sell or, at most, if something has to be sold, let it be a 25% maximum. The reason is that the Barça he considers that it is a business in which he has a lot of ‘know how’ and he does not want any group to come in to command. And if someone buys 49.9%, they will want to have a lot of decision-making capacity at the strategic level and even put their own people in charge of the company.
The Barça billed 57 million in the last year thanks to BLM and in the next one it hopes to enter 100. The club recovered the management and soon it was seen, under the command of Joan Carles Raventós, that the business was very productive. Now with Josep Maria Messeguera veteran employee of the club, wants to maintain the entire property in order to exclusively manage one of the most important assets.
Until now, the club was working on a consortium offer between Investindustrialthe ‘private equity’ led by Carlo Bonomi, and the company Fanatics, an American multinational that is the official merchandising product partner of all the main North American professional leagues (NBA, NFL, MLB, NHL), as well as the university leagues (NCAA), NASCAR and the PGA Tour of golf. This proposal of Investindustrial y Fanatics for him 49.9% of BLM sales could generate some 270 million of euros for him Barçabut recently the negotiations have reached a deadlock and now everything indicates that they will not come to fruition.
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