Juventus football club shares jumped by 30 per cent on Wednesday after Cristiano Ronaldo hat-trick that catapulted the Italian football club into the quarter finals of the Uefa Champions League.
Three goals from the Portuguese striker in the second leg knockout fixture on Tuesday night see Juventus kick out Spain’s Atlético Madrid from the Champions League, despite coming into the game with a two-goal deficit after a first-leg defeat.
Juventus share price rose as much as 30 per cent from a Tuesday close of €1.22m to a high of €1.59m in Milan in early Wednesday trading — boosting its market capitalisation by €373m to €1.6bn. By lunchtime its shares had settled around €1.42, marking a 17 per cent gain on the previous close.
Qualification for the quarter finals brings with it a €10.5m windfall, according to Uefa, the governing body for European football.
This comes on top of the €9.5m the club had already pocketed for its round of 16 appearances.
Juventus advanced to the quarter-finals of the competition, joining Amsterdam’s Ajax, Portugal’s Porto and English clubs Manchester United, Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur.
A place in the semi-finals brings with it a €12m payout, while an appearance in the final pays a further €15m. The winner of the Champions League will bank another €4m.
The club made waves last month when it tapped international bond markets for the first time, raising €175m of five-year debt at a 3.5 per cent yield, after paying €100m to sign Ronaldo last year.
It was the third remarkable comeback in just eight days for listed teams after Amsterdam’s AFC Ajax NV dumped Real Madrid out of the continent’s elite tournament despite losing the first game 2-1 and England’s Manchester United Plc overturned a two-goal first-leg deficit to defeat Paris St-Germain in the French capital.
The wins have significant financial implications: Champions League quarter finalists receive an extra 10.5 million euros ($11.9 million) in prize money, with another 31 million euros potentially at stake if clubs progress further. Success in Europe’s most prestigious tournament also tends to bring greater leverage with sponsors.
Juventus’s progress is a boon for Exor NV, the holding company owned by the billionaire Agnellis, which owns 64 percent of the club’s stock. The family’s other investments include stakes in carmakers Ferrari NV and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V.
Juventus shares have now risen about 140 percent since reports of a deal for Ronaldo began last summer. The stock’s performance saw it added to Italy’s blue-chip FTSE MIB benchmark in December, a rare feat for a soccer team.
Banca IMI said in a report last year that Instagram’s most-followed person could triple the Italian club’s shirt sales by 2022, while spurring a 60 percent increase in annual sponsorship revenue from deals with the likes of Adidas AG.
Playing for Juventus against Atletico Madrid, Cristiano showed that no price can be put on his head. Real Madrid made a monumental error.
Anthony Nlebem
