As Roma, what happens to Friedkin’s takeover?
Facts, numbers and scenarios on Roma Calcio and Friedkin's takeover bid
It was a very lively Monday for Roma action. On the stock market, the stock yesterday also reached + 11% before settling at + 8.53% at the end of the day.
On the Messaggero the new owner Dan Friedkin has published a paid announcement to urge the supporters-shareholders to confer the shares on the takeover bid launched in August and which, at the first deadline of 30 October, saw the adhesion by a paltry 1.13%. The new deadline was set for 6 November.
A few more days and the future of Rome's governance will be known.
OBJECTIVE: DELISTING
The Friedkin group, last August, through the company Romulus and Remus investments, acquired from James Pallotta about 86.6% of the shares of the Capitoline club, at the same time launching a mandatory takeover bid to take over the remaining 13 from the small shareholders. , 4%. The goal of the new ownership is the delisting, or the revocation of the Giallorossi title from the stock market. In order to achieve it, however, it is necessary that Dan and Ryan Friedkin take possession of at least 90% of the share capital by Friday, the deadline for shareholders who decide to join the takeover bid at a price of 0.1165 per share, the same paid for the acquisition of the majority stake.
ENHANCE SOCIETY
The choice of delisting, as the CEO Guido Fienga recently explained, is aimed at "advancing AS Roma in the club's strengthening program and, consequently, investing more resources in the club itself and in strengthening the team". And again: “The company will in fact be able to operate in a more flexible and agile way when it comes to making managerial decisions and moving more quickly, simplifying the complexities associated with the status of a listed company”.
THE NUMBERS OF ROME
The consolidated balance sheet as at 30/6/20, approved a few days ago, suggests why the Friedkins want to take full possession of the operations: the loss of 204 million , compared to the loss of 24.3 million in the previous year, is above all worrying for the revenues that have been lacking, and will be missing, also this season due to Covid. However, such an important deficit cannot derive solely from the pandemic. The sporting management of the team was far from flawless: the Giallorossi are third in Serie A for the amount of salaries , however the players for a very high remuneration did not respond to expectations by failing to qualify for the Champions League for the second year in a row and bringing the ratio between salaries and income to the dangerous threshold of 79%, the fourth worst in the five major leagues (England, Spain, Germany, Italy and France).
Participation in the Europa League offers lower revenues from Uefa and sponsors, being considered a less important stage than the Champions League: the difference is around 49 million, 16.8 collected in the 19/20 season against 65, 9 to 30/6/19. Another important source of income for the Giallorossi has always been the buying and selling of players, the so-called “player trading”. Often the Roma managers have been able to buy excellent players at low prices by reselling them at astronomical figures: last season the item "management of players' registration rights" read +132.3 (mainly the result of the sale of goalkeeper Alisson to Liverpool for 80 million about) today a miserable +16.1 . Rome needs an economic re-foundation: no one, at least for the name, seems more suitable than Romulus and Remus investments to try
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/as-roma-che-cosa-succede-allopa-di-friedkin/ on Tue, 03 Nov 2020 06:50:29 +0000.