As fans of Juventus Football Club SpA celebrate a summer transfer campaign that helped make the Italian soccer club a top contender for the league title, shareholders are smiling too.
Shares in Turin-based Juve, the record 27-time Serie A champion, rose to a one-year high of 1.05 euros this week as analysts upgraded price estimates after the club targeted a break-even result for 2009-10. The stock has gained more than 24 percent this month after 12 consecutive positive sessions.
Juve, controlled by Agnelli family holding company Exor SpA, has focused on cost-cutting after a match-fixing scandal known as “Calciopoli,” or “Soccergate,” led to the team’s demotion in 2006.
Turin-based sports daily Tuttosport captured the mood of fans and investors with its Aug. 7 headline, “Calciopoli erased,” after the club said Aug. 6 that revenue rose 18 percent to a record 240.4 million euros ($342 million) last season, more than the 226 million reported for the 2005-06 season, before the scandal.
“Three years ago, we began a new approach to achieve results under financial constraints,” Exor Chairman and Fiat SpA Vice-President John Elkann told reporters in April.
“It’s a turnaround story any way you look at it, from a sports point of view or financially,” said Alessandro Frigerio, a fund manager at RMJ Sgr in Milan who bought 100,000 shares at 0.79 euro each last month. “The stock was undervalued.”
Costs Under Control
Banca Imi on Aug. 11 increased its price estimate on Juve to 91 cents from 75 cents, saying the club’s participation in European soccer’s elite Champions League “sustained the top line and costs remained under control.”
Juventus, the runner-up to Inter Milan last season, spent 50 million euros this summer on players, signing Brazilians Diego and Felipe Melo, Italy defender Fabio Cannavaro and Uruguay’s Jose Martin Caceres.
The club also sold out season tickets after national team coach Marcello Lippi picked it as the next Serie A winner. Juve last won the Italian championship in 2003.
Oddsmaker Better, the sports betting division of Lottomatica SpA, rates Juve as the second-favorite to win the title at 3.75 -- meaning a successful bet of 1 euro would return 3.75 including the stake. Inter Milan is the favorite at 1.9. Juve opens the season Aug. 23 at home to Chievo.
With the new signings, Juve “has what it needs to fight to the finish for the Italian championship and for the Champions League title,” club captain Alessandro Del Piero told reporters yesterday.
Chief Executive Officer Jean-Claude Blanc plans to increase stadium revenue by 50 percent as the team moves back into the refurbished 40,000-seat Stadio delle Alpi, which it bought from the city of Turin in 2003.
“In Italy, stadiums are the only revenue source that can still be exploited,” Juventus head of marketing Marco Fassone said in an interview. “We don’t forecast any revenue growth from TV rights, sponsorships or merchandising.”
(Source: Bloomberg)
