The EXOR Holding company, owner of the Italian football behemoth Juventus, disclosed on Wednesday that the Serie A competitor registered a loss of €81 million (equivalent to $87 million) in the latter half of its financial year ending last June. This brings the club’s annual deficit to roughly €110 million.
Previously, one of Italy’s most triumphant football clubs declared a net loss of €29.5 million for the first six months of the financial year until December 31, 2022.
Juventus, headquartered in Turin, is expected to announce its full-year results ending June 30 later this month. Notably, in the fiscal year 2021-2022, the club suffered a record loss of nearly €240 million. The last five years have seen Juventus accrue losses exceeding €600 million after last reporting net profits in 2016-2017.
EXOR, owned by the Agnelli family, recently refuted rumors spurred by an article from the Italian newspaper Il Giornale, which suggested that the company might sell the “Old Lady” after owning it for a century. EXOR Holding possesses 63.8% of shares in the Italian football titan and holds 78% of the voting rights. Juventus currently has a market valuation of about €800 million (around $858 million).
Financial experts and bankers speculate that, given the losses recorded last fiscal year coupled with a looming €180 million debt due next June, Juventus may need capital injection. However, they argue that the club’s ongoing legal troubles could complicate such endeavors. Over the past four years, the club received approximately €700 million in cash from shareholders, with nearly two-thirds sourced from EXOR.
Last year, as the club’s legal issues came to the forefront, EXOR’s CEO John Elkann stated that Juventus did not require additional capital.
Further exacerbating the club’s challenges, Juventus and its former president, Andrea Agnelli, along with 11 others, are currently under criminal investigation over allegations of presenting false financial accounts.
While the club denies any wrongdoing, asserting that its financial accounts are in line with industry standards, last season saw a setback. Authorities deducted ten points from its league tally due to accounting irregularities, and UEFA (the Union of European Football Associations) banned it from participating in continental competitions this season.
