Berardo Bid for Benfica Fails as He Gets Less Than 1%
21/08/2007 |
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Portuguese investor Jose Berardo's 45 million-euro ($60.7 million) bid for Benfica failed after shareholders tendered just under 1 percent of the shares in the two-time European soccer champion's operating unit.
Holders of at least 30 percent of Sport Lisboa e Benfica Futebol SAD had to accept the offer of 3.50 euros a share from Berardo's Metalgest SGPS SA holding company for the bid to succeed. They tendered 145,144 shares, the Euronext Lisbon stock exchange said today in a statement.
Bernardo tried to buy Benfica less than a month after it joined rivals Porto and Sporting Lisbon on the stock market. Benfica's board called Berardo's bid low and ``inopportune.'' Bernardo, who is now barred from making another bid for the company for a year, didn't rule out increasing his stake.
``It's not forbidden for me to buy shares,'' he told a press conference in Lisbon today. ``It may even be that I buy shares in the stock market at a cheaper price.''
Benfica SAD shares climbed 0.9 percent to 3.25 euros in Lisbon. The Bloomberg European Football Club Index climbed 12 percent last year, its fourth annual gain.
Metalgest in June said it wanted to buy a stake big enough to allow it to improve management at the club. Benfica has won just one of its Portuguese record 31 league titles in the past 12 years.
`Winning Games'
``It's necessary to turn Benfica around,'' said Berardo, who owned 0.035 percent of Benfica SAD before the bid. ``What matters to me is that Benfica is capable of winning games and championships.''
Benfica SAD said today that coach Fernando Santos agreed to resign, two days after the opening league game ended in a 1-1 draw at Leixoes. Former Spanish national team manager Jose Antonio Camacho will return as coach, Portuguese television station SIC and radio station TSF reported.
The soccer club has control of Benfica SAD, which handles television rights negotiations and other business activities, through a 50 percent stake. Berardo bid for all of Benfica SAD except the 15 percent that the soccer club is legally barred from selling. Portuguese investment bank Banif-Banco de Investimento SA advised him.
Shares in Sporting Lisbon's operating unit, Sporting- Sociedade Desportiva de Futebol SAD, added 0.8 percent to 2.51 euros, while Futebol Clube do Porto-Futebol SAD shares rose 3.7 percent to 2.27 euros.
Guinness World Records ranks Benfica as the world's biggest soccer club by active members, which currently total more than 167,000, Benfica spokesman Ricardo Maia said in March.
(Source: Bloomberg.com)
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