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Valencia CF Expects to Receive c. €100M from Sale of Mestalla Plot

4 June 2018 – Expansión

Valencia Football Club (Valencia CF) is making progress with the financing for its new football stadium. Market sources estimate that the club could receive proceeds of more than €100 million from the sale of the land on which its current Mestalla stadium is located, a site between the sought-after avenues of Aragón and Suecia.

The sale of that plot, known as the old Mestalla and with buildability for residential and tertiary use, could materialise before the end of 2018, taking advantage of the good times in the real estate market. The plot measures 12,000 m2 and has a buildable surface area of 70,000 m2.

That amount would allow Valencia CF to partially finance the completion of the construction of its new site, where it has fixed assets in progress worth €115 million, and to reduce the debt that it currently holds with financial institutions and which amounts to around €185 million. It also holds liabilities with the public administrations.

The work on this construction site began in August 2007 but was suspended in February 2009, which means that the project has been paralysed now for almost a decade. Since then, several attempts have been made to restart it, but those efforts have always been postponed due to the need for financing.

The club has decided to accelerate its plans to move to the future Mestalla and push ahead with the reduction in its debt and the clean up of its balance sheet to focus on its sporting efforts. Only the arrival in December 2014 of the Singaporean magnate Peter Lim saved the team from bankruptcy, which has recorded losses of €60.2 million in total over the last three years, in large part due to this real estate expenditure. Losses are also forecast for this year.

In this context, the President of Valencia CF, Anil Murthy, now considers that “the real estate market has evolved enough to meet our objectives”. Thus, the club is going to continue working with the Town Hall to process the amended licences to start the building work.

Inauguration: in 2021

Murthy said that for this process, Valencia CF has engaged Deloitte, which will be its comprehensive advisor in all aspects financial, real estate, technical and economic relating to the entire process necessary to move to the future stadium within the timeframes set out in the Valencia Strategic Territorial Action Plan.

In addition, Deloitte will be responsible for the business plan and sale of the tertiary space in the new stadium, which will have more than 40,000 m2 of buildable space available for commercial use (…).

Original story: Expansión (by E. S. Mazo & R. Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake