Real Madrid Proposes Selling A Stake To Gauge Club's Valuation

Real Madrid is willing to let an external investor take a stake in the football club, a move that would help the Spanish football giant better assess how others value it, Chairman Florentino Pérez said on Sunday. 

Europe’s most successful football club, nick-named Los Blancos for the white kits the players wear, will create a new unit to house “a minority shareholding of 5%, or something like that, to know what the club’s value is,” Pérez said during the club’s annual general assembly. “That’s the clearest and most convincing way of doing it,” he said, adding that the alternative would be to go public, which the club doesn’t wish to do.

Selling a stake would take place in conjunction with plans to convert members into shareholders, as proposed by Pérez a year ago.

Unlike most top European clubs, Real Madrid — and arch-rival FC Barcelona — operates as a nonprofit organization owned by thousands of fee-paying fans. This structure bars private investors from acquiring stakes, since members don’t own tradeable shares. 

The club will hold an extraordinary meeting to vote on the changes.

Turning fans into shareholders would allow them to become “the true owners of the club,” Pérez said in 2024, adding that such a move could distribute among them an asset worth more than €10 billion ($11.5 billion). 

The potential entry of outside investors would come amid a boom in sports finance, as asset managers increasingly target the football industry. Earlier this month, Real Madrid’s city rival Atlético de Madrid sold a majority stake to Apollo Global Management Inc., in a deal valuing the club at €2.2 billion. 

Other private equity firms have also been pouring money into football leagues and teams. In Spain, CVC Capital Partners Plc struck a deal in 2021 to inject funds into the country’s top-flight LaLiga in exchange for a share of broadcast rights. Real Madrid and Barcelona opposed that agreement.

Real Madrid has won a record 15 Champions League titles and strengthened its dominance in European football under Pérez, who has led the club since 2009 and previously served as president from 2000 to 2006.

A billionaire and chairman of construction giant Actividades de Construccion y Servicios SA, Pérez personally owns no financial stake in Real Madrid and contributes none of his own capital. Elected by members, he oversees a club that relies solely on the revenue it generates.