Brera Holdings, a Dublin-based company that holds stakes in a number of lower-league football clubs, racked up more than €8 million in net losses in its first 18 months as a publicly-listed company (plc).
The company, which floated on the Nasdaq in New York in January 2023, recorded a €3.17 million loss for the six months to last June, according to a regulatory filing in recent days. The figure, which was more than double the shortfall posted by the company for the year-earlier period, mainly reflected how running costs far exceeded some €1.61 million of revenues for the period.
Sponsorship income at €900,220, and player transfer fees of €234,693, made up the bulk of revenues, with ticket sales generating less than €40,000 as the company went about expanding its stable of clubs.
Brera Holdings was set up in 2022 as a corporate entity over Brera FC, the so-called “third team of Milan” (after Inter Milan and AC Milan), which has been in existence since 2000.
Brera expanded to Africa in March 2023 with the establishment of Brera Tchumene, a team admitted to the second-division league in Mozambique, before acquiring 90 per cent of North Macedonian first league club FK Akademija Pandev a month later.
In June 2023, Brera acquired a small “strategic stake” in Manchester United, making what it claimed was a 74 per cent gain at the end of the year as it tendered all of its shares as UK billionaire Jim Ratcliffe made an offer for a minority stake in the club.
In the following months, it acquired control of Italian Serie A1 women’s professional volleyball team UYBA Volley as well as a majority stake in Bayanzurkh Sporting Ilch FC, a team in the Mongolian National Premier League, which was renamed Brera Ilch FC.
Brera Holdings was set up in Dublin in June 2022 to hold the “cult club” as it went about raising money in an initial public offering (IPO) to expand by acquiring and developing a portfolio of football clubs in emerging markets including eastern Europe, Africa and South America.
On Tuesday, Brera closed a deal to buy an initial 22 per cent stake in Italian Serie B football club SS Juve Stabia, known as the “second team of Naples”. It has an agreement to increase the interest in two further stages, to reach 52 per cent by the end of March.
Brera, whose shares have plunged 82 per cent since its IPO, had a “minimal cash balance” of €87,245 at the end of November, according to its latest financial statement. It raised $2.7 million of funding the following month through the private placement of preferred shares to help fund the initial Juve Stabia stake purchase and fund other working capital requirements.
The majority interest in Juve Stabia will cost Brera €3.5 million in cash and €4 million in shares – making it, by far, its most expensive acquisition. If the club is promoted to Italy’s Serie A division by the end of the 2024-2025 season, Brera would have to pay a bonus of €5 million worth of shares to the selling shareholders.
Management concluded that while there is “substantial doubt about the company’s ability to continue as a going concern”, this has been “alleviated” by plans to raise fresh capital, the first step of which involved the $2.7 million fundraise in December, the latest report said.
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