Two technological entrepreneurs from Alicante, advised by former athletic Juanfran Torres, turned to launching the modest club to seek financing in the stock market. Every summer they will make capital increases to form the best squad until they reach professional football
A Salvador Mart and Javier Mira They like football, but they barely entered stadiums until they decided to revolutionize the management of football. The small Alicante club that they bought four years ago in Primera Regional and renamed CF Intercity be the first in Spain to be listed on bag. On the way to the ringing of the bell today at the Madrid Stock Exchange Palace they have achieved three promotions until the Second RFEF, the conversion into SAD and even a Copa del Rey tie against Athletic. His goal is to take the club to at least Second, the first category that is not deficient. So far nothing that any patron does not propose, but the Intercity differs in strategy.
Both entrepreneurs have transferred to football the success model of their own company, Facephi, the first Spanish in facial recognition technology, very well received on the stock market. If we were able to raise financing to make our company viable, why not a club, explains the president of Intercity, Salvador Mart. They started out as three shareholders and now there are around 300. Exiting the market means offering investors an exit door.
When they want they can put their shares on the market and sell them, with capital gains and losses depending on the moment. Up to now, in football, being a shareholder didn’t give you anything and any input was trapped, he adds.
With this escape route, they have captured important Alicante businessmen and who today is the image of Intercity: the former captain of the Atltico Juanfran Torres placeholder image. He is not part of the board of directors, but he is one of its 241 shareholders. He owns less than 5% of the capital, is a sports advisor and also a player in the futsal section.
It was a summer love, he tells EL MUNDO. Javier and I are neighbors on the beach of San Juan and they were telling me their idea. They weren’t football people, but maybe that’s why they were very clear about what they didn’t want to be. It is a long-term project in which I am getting involved and in which I know what to work on. I loved it because they are not ambitious, nobody who comes to invest has the door closed and they do not want to rush. This is not the way it is. You have to do good sports management and be patient. The Villarreal It is an example that I give you, he argues.
The team so far is designed by the veteran former Hercules coach Quique Hernndez and directs it from the bench who was a central defender of Mallorca, Gustavo Siviero. Sixths in the table, they are above historical as the Hrcules or the Real Murcia.
The Intercity listing on the stock market, beyond the historic milestone, allows opening a financing path that is unexplored by the clubs, anchored in television rights, marketing and season tickets, three ways that leave almost nothing in the coffers of the modest .
The novelty of this club is that it will go on the market to seek financing to sign its players each season. Until we reach break even, being sustainable and covering expenses, we will capital increases to be among the highest budgets in the category and to be able to move up, explains Mart. Its model is similar to that of the startups, who are looking for rounds of investors to grow their businesses.
But to quote they find more advantages. “We could sign a player who earns, for example, half a million euros and instead of giving it to him out of the box, make a capital increase for credit compensation, generate shares and give them to the player to sell on the market and sell. copper”. That formula that the president details has not yet been used, but even Juanfran, who has just hung up his boots, does not see it with a bad eye. “It’s all a matter of negotiating with the player, but a very wide range opens up. You have to know how to manage it, but I trust what they have done with your company.” At the moment, 20 players of the squad are convinced, who have bought shares voluntarily “and if we move up now they will be able to have a double premium,” the president smiles.
Attracting shareholders on the stock market might seem complicated without the component of belonging that comes from being on a football team. “It is true that we can play at a disadvantage against a historic and centenary team in Alicante such as Hrcules. But that romanticism is earned over time. Working well, in four years we have realized that wherever 30 people come to see Sant Joan, now 2,000 come to Santa Pola for Intercity matches. When you buy a stock, you feel like you own it and you start to go with your family. Although now most of our shareholders are from Hercules, little by little we are earning that love and it is not incompatible to be a fan of one team and the owner of another, “says the businessman.
Pay for works in stadiums or capitalize debt
Other Spanish clubs have set their sights on the Intercity experience and it has the sponsorship of LaLiga. “They are expectant because they know that we are going to have a financing tool that they do not have. They have called us from all over the country and are waiting to continue the path that we are opening with the machete. But all the clubs that are already SAD could leave to the market when they wanted. They would get financing for projects such as stadiums or to eliminate debt by capitalizing it, “he explains. The problem here may be the demand for transparency, which does not match the desire of some owners of large clubs.
The other danger is that there is a massive purchase that dilutes the large owners. In the case of Mart, he has 11% of the capital stock of Intercity, valued at 5.5 million, and his partner Javier Mira does not reach 6%. The rest is very distributed. According to the newsletter with which they BME Growth, 60% is in the hands of small shareholders, who made a minimum investment of 300 euros and who will now be able to buy more securities at a price of 1.20 euros (0.20 for capital and one euro of issue premium).
The control mechanisms of the stock market will help them to keep capital atomized. All shareholders who have more than 5% of the company, which is understood as a significant stake, must report their movements. “To buy one more share, you would have to make a ‘relevant fact’ and communicate it to the market,” recalls the businessman. “If someone wants to go buying and they sell to him, he can do so until he reaches 30%. At that time, if he wants to continue, the OPAS Law already forces him to have to make an offer for 100% of the company”, warns.
Until the moment the bell rings, Intercity managers have everything studied. But in football not everything can be under control. There are factors that depend on the players on the field. We are subject to the ball. If you invest 100 euros in Santander, a bad day may fall 2 or 3%, but here it means 30-40%. We are not at that level, but you wine it with the Juventus. When I signed Cristiano Ronaldo, the value of his shares rose 15%. When he was eliminated from the Champion, he dropped a 20. For Mart, the bag that is viewed with suspicion today will be like television, which the clubs distrusted because it could empty the stadiums and affect the box office and has ended up becoming the mainstay of the accounts. It is only a matter of time.
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