FC Barcelona Closes €1.45 Billion Deal To Fund Stadium Revamp

(Bloomberg) -- Spanish football club FC Barcelona has closed a financing deal earmarked to revamp its Camp Nou stadium.  

The €1.45 billion ($1.6 billion) in funding will be provided by a group of 20 investors and is to be repaid in five installments over 24 years, the club said in a statement on its website late Monday. 

The stadium’s poor conditions have led to fines for failing to meet European competitions requirements.  

The funding was closed at the same time as Barcelona is engulfed in a scandal over payments made to a former vice-president of the Spanish football federation’s referees committee over almost 20 years. According to local media reports, the scandal was impacting the club’s reputation and hindering Barcelona’s ability to make the placement. 

Bloomberg News reported earlier this month that an agreement had been reached with lenders including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co.

The club’s assets weren’t used as a guarantee and no mortgage was taken out on the stadium, Barcelona said. It’ll start to pay down the debt once the revamp works are completed, using the income generated by the stadium, which is expected to be about €247 million annually.

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