The ordinary meeting of Real Madrid members this Sunday, starting at 9am, will be very unusual indeed. The president, Florentino Pérez, intends to propose a historic change for the club which consists in allowing the entry of an investor who could purchase between 5% and 10% of the company. The operation, advanced by EL PAÍS, would not affect the nature of the club, which would remain as in its 123-year history and would maintain its governing bodies and procedures without transforming into a sports joint-stock company.
Pérez’s plan, according to sources close to the draft plan, would be realized through the creation of a new company, similar to the one created to exploit the stadium business, in which Sixth Street and Legends participate. The new investor would control up to 10% of the club through this vehicle without involving participation in decision-making processes.
The sale of this part of Real Madrid would function, among other things, as a kind of real money valuation of the club. In last year’s meeting, Pérez estimated that Real Madrid was worth more than 10,000 million euros. His estimate would be valid if an investor brought 1,000 million in exchange for 10% of the club through this new company.
The formula would also serve to put a price on another of the novelties of the proposal that the white president will present this Sunday. One of the reasons Pérez gave last year for seeking a new corporate structure was that he wanted to protect the club’s assets and distribute them effectively among its members. His proposal envisages doing so through shares, one per member, which will be worth a proportional part of the club’s total resulting from the new investor’s contribution and which can be sold and purchased among members, although no one will be able to have more than one. The club would act as an intermediary in this market with a finite number of shares, those that are allocated in the first distribution. At the end of last season, Real Madrid had 98,272 members. New members, children or grandchildren of members, could purchase a share from another willing to sell it.
Pérez will present the general outlines of his proposal this Sunday, but both the full details and the first decisions for members to decide on it will have to be provided at an as yet undated ordinary meeting. This meeting of representatives will evaluate the concrete proposal and decide whether to submit it to a referendum among all members, something Pérez committed to last year. In this extraordinary meeting we will also evaluate what type of majority the proposal will require. The statute requires an “absolute majority of members with the right to vote” in cases of “transformation, merger or extinction”. The latest official count includes 77,798 possible voters, meaning 38,900 yes votes would be needed. However, the president does not believe his plan represents a “transformation” while preserving the structure of the club, which would also maintain the method of choosing his successor. In other cases the statutes do not expressly mention the conditions of the referendum.
