“In this type of operation, banks look for reinsurance with other banks. Goldman Sachs had always counted on the possibility that Bank of America, Merrill Lynch and JP Morgan would enter”, continues the same source. At the moment JP Morgan has entered. And his presence in the search for funding for the Espai Barça is so established that he was one of the judges, together with Goldman Sachs, in the tender for the remodeling works of the Camp Nou that it was announced this Monday that he has won the Turkish construction company Limak Construction, leaving the Spanish ones without a prize: the alliance of Acciona and Ferrovial, and FCC.
The presence of JP Morgan in the Espai Barça project is not accidental, since it is the bank behind the financing of the Superliga, the European competition that the Blaugrana club, Real Madrid and Juventus of Turin insist on creating . In addition, it is participating in the financing of the remodeling of the Bernabéu and participated in the Sustainable Project, prepared by Key Capital Partners, Florentino Pérez’s counter-proposal to Javier Tebas’ Impulso Plan for the sale of LaLiga television rights to CVC. On the other hand, JP Morgan already collaborated indirectly in one of the levers that Laporta’s board of directors made last summer: the sale in two installments of 25% of LaLiga’s television rights to Sixth Street for 25 years coming, which meant a capital gain of 667.5 million euros in the Blaugrana accounts. In this operation, JP Morgan granted credit to Sixth Street to be able to carry it out.
Anas Laghrari, the mastermind of the Superliga and Florentino’s financial right-hand man
The intermediary in this sale of Barça’s television rights is Anas Laghrari, a 39-year-old banker with an intense relationship with Florentino Pérez and Real Madrid who operates through the firm Key Capital Partners. In addition, he is the brain of the Superliga and structured another of the levers that Laporta used to make signings during the past summer transfer market: the sale of 24.5% of Barça Studios to Socios.com. Considering Laghrari’s resume, the ARA has asked two sources familiar with the negotiations between Barça and JP Morgan if this banker born in Casablanca (Morocco) has also participated so far in the search for financing for the Space Boat. The response in both cases has been negative, although Arístides Maillol has acknowledged that Laghrari participates in other financial operations.
The Palau Blaugrana will follow a different path
“Goldman Sachs is not at all interested in the Palau Blaugrana because it will not have a return in profits, as will happen with the Camp Nou”, a Barça source explains to this newspaper. Thus, the financing of this secondary work in the Espai Barça project is destined to seek another path. According to RAC1, the Blaugrana club has received offers from companies in the construction sector to take over the construction of the New Palau Blaugrana and the costs it would entail. The counterpart would be that Barça would cede to this company the future operation of the site and the income it generates during a period that could be between 25 and 40 years. For its part, the Catalan club would keep a small profit margin.
