Real Oviedo this evening held its Ordinary and Extraordinary General Shareholders Meeting, in which all points raised in the Order of Businessn were approved, and in which Arturo Elias Ayub took part via telephone.
The Ordinary and Extraordinary Meeting, held at the Palacio de Congresos yExposiciones in Oviedo, saw members who hold 69.34% of the total capital of the club in attendance. In total 95 shareholders attended the meeting personally, with 4 other shareholders represented.
The Meeting began with a speech from Real Oviedo Club President, Jorge Menéndez Vallina. He was keen to highlight the importance of the share value, which makes up the social capital of the club, tripling from the time of the arrival of Grupo Carso at the club until now. This is a very positive situation for shareholders, which has only been made possible thanks to Grupo Carso’s decision not to reduce the club’s social capital to make up for accumulated losses in the past under previous ownership. In addition, they agreed to underwrite capital for the nominal value, even though the book value of the shares was less, due to accumulated losses. As such, all shareholders have seen their shares triple in value in barely four seasons.
Jorge Menéndez Vallina explained that, having sealed the involvement of new investors in the project thanks to Grupo Carso, the latest capital increase campaign finally saw a total of €3.3m subscribed for, after initially being approved for the value of more than 7 million euros. In addition, due to time constraints, an important injection of €1.5m from a shareholder did not arrive in time. This capital has now been deposited, in the form of credit, and will later be converted into shares during the new share campaign.
The President also underlined the importance of debt owed to Public Administrations having been reduced. By the end of the current the season, 85% of the original total will have been settled since the arrival of Grupo Carso as shareholders in the club, and the club continues to move towards zero debt; something which has now been guaranteed by successive capital increase campaigns. The debt owed to Public Administrations has been reduced by a total of €12.4m since the arrival of Grupo Carso as shareholders in the club. It is estimated that at the end of the current, 2017/18 season, the amount to be repaid will stand at €2.3m, having been reduced by 85% since Carso’s first involvement with Real Oviedo. As such, the club continues to scrupulously comply with the repayment structure established in the agreement with the Tax Agency and Social Security (Agencia Tributaria y Seguridad Social), as renewed in 2014. A total of €600,000 was paid last July, as well as another €750,000 in September, with the final payment of 2017 due to be €172,000 this December. The next repayment due will be another €750,000 in the month of March. Following this repayment schedule, on 30th June 2018, and looking forward to the next financial year, a total of €2.3m will remain to be repaid to the Public Administrations.
The budget for the current season was unanimously approved. It estimates total income at €13.6m, which will allow for a surplus of €197,184, and a total of €6,895,719 available for the first team squad.
With respect to the fourth item on the Order of Business, the Board of Directors explained that, thanks to a possibility permitted by the law for Sports Corporations, and with the sole intention of streamlining the initiation of future capital increase campaigns, there would be a vote on whether the Board of Directors should be granted the authority to put new club share campaigns into action.
In the votes held, the first and second points of the Order of Business (the annual accounts for 2016/17 and the proposal for the application of profits) were passed with one abstention. The third matter (the Budget for the financial year 17/18) was passed unanimously. The fourth point (authority to be given to the Board of Directors to hold future capital increase campaigns) was passed with two votes against and one abstention.
After concluding the fifth point with requests and questions, Arturo Elias Ayub joined the Real Oviedo Shareholders Meeting via telephone from Mexico. He wished to celebrate such positive news of the value of shares tripling, to thank shareholders for their attendance and their support, and also to wish all Oviedistas happy holidays.
.
