Sale as the only solution

The Real Zaragoza He has been involved in a complex sale process for a year, with up to three unsuccessful attempts, but the next three weeks seem final for the change of ownership before the very serious treasury problems of the sports corporation and the institutional crisis that was revealed in the last general meeting of shareholders with the absence of the directors and shareholders Fernando de Yarza and Juan Forcen.

The current property has managed to reduce the net debt of Real Zaragoza in its eight years of management by almost 39 million euros, largely due to the transfer of players from the quarry, but there are still 67.9 million pending and, given the immediate payment schedule, the cash problem is now greater than ever, despite the recent signing of the contract between LaLiga and the investment fund CVC, for which the Aragonese club will receive just over 11 million euros. So the shareholding change is imposed as the only solution to avoid a true economic collapse with unpredictable consequences.

Zaragoza has been paying its players and employees with delays in the last two months, but the year 2021 is going to be closed in a truly extreme situation, because before January 20, 2022 the club must face payments to the Tax Agency – to which almost eleven million are owed, between the short term and a privileged loan – and to CaixaBank, with which two credits have been signed for a value of seven and three million euros, in addition to all current expenses.

AS already reported last Wednesday that the change of ownership in Real Zaragoza could become a reality in mid-January, once a new investment group, of which the director and minority shareholder of Betis is an intermediary, José María Gallego, has finalized an agreement with the Alierta family, through Fernando Sáinz de Varanda and Juan Uguet de Resayre, to gain control of the main sports corporation in Aragon. The conversations began a little over two months ago through the Cuatrecasas law firm, of which Antonio García Lapuente is a partner in Zaragoza, in turn secretary of the board of directors of the Zaragoza entity.

At this time, we are only waiting for the conclusion of the ‘due diligence’, or external audit commissioned by the intermediary of the buyer group on the statement of accounts of Real Zaragoza. This intermediary has an exclusivity, extended for one month, to negotiate with the Alierta family that ends on January 16, 2022.

This new investment group intends to acquire, through a payment of 3 million euros, the shareholding package of the Alierta family (50.56% of the share capital), in addition to paying another 3.8 million euros corresponding to a personal equity loan of the former Chairman of Telefónica, since it is susceptible to being converted into shares.

For its part, the buying group would have to face the ten million euros corresponding to loans personally guaranteed by the four largest shareholders of the club with Caixa-Bank.

It remains to be seen whether this group also decides to make an offer for the shares of the Yarza family (13.46% of the capital stock), Carlos Iribarren (13.46%) and Juan Forcen (13.46%).