Barça assembly approves the sale of Barça Licensing & Merchandising SL (BLM)
The club hope to raise as much as €300 million from the minority stake sale
Barcelona members called up for Thursday's general assembly voted in favour of the sale of a 49.9% stake in Barça Licensing & Merchandising SL (BLM).
The assembly gave Barça's board of directors the authorisation to sell the minority part of the subsidiary to business to one or more investors. The Catalan club will reserve an option to buy back. The result was 568 in favour, 65 against and 13 abstained.
Vice president Juli Guiu made the presentation on BLM and assured that it is "100% owned by Barça" and that it is in charge of marketing the Barça brand through physical stores, online, sales through third parties (wholesalers) and the sale of licensed products. In total, he said, "we have more than 2,000 products for sale."
Guiu stressed three basic points on the operation: the part that is put up for sale is a minority (Barça will always have control), Barça will always be able to repurchase the part that it sells (in a space of 5-6 years) and the growth, with this new partner, is assured because they are specialists in opening markets.
