Juventus set to show another year deep in the red

Italy’s Juventus posted a €81 million (US$87 million) loss in the second half of its fiscal year to the end of June, parent Exor said on Wednesday, indicating a full-year deficit of around €110 million for the Serie A soccer club.

Juventus, Italy’s most successful soccer team, said in March it had ended the six months to Dec 31, 2022 with a €29.5 million net loss.

Exor, the holding company of the Agnelli family that has led the club for a century, owns around 64 per cent of the shares and 78 per cent of the voting rights at Juventus.

The 2022-23 season was a bleak one for the Turin-based club which was docked 10 points in Serie A for its accounting issues and also banned from European competition for the current season by UEFA.

The club is expected to officially release its results for the full financial year to Jun 30 later this month. In the 2021-22 fiscal year it posted a record loss of almost €240 million.

Juventus have lost more than €600 million in five years after last posting a net profit in 2016-2017.

With another loss for the last financial year – and €180 million of debt due in June next year – Juventus might need fresh capital, analysts and bankers say, although they add its current legal troubles could make a new cash call more complicated.

The club has already swallowed around €700 million in cash from shareholders over the past four years, roughly two thirds of which came from Exor.

Exor CEO John Elkann said last year, when the club’s legal troubles hit the headlines, that Juventus had no need of additional capital.

Juventus, its former Chairman Andrea Agnelli and 11 others could face trial after judges in Italy last year launched a criminal case against them over allegations of false accounting.

The club has denied wrongdoing and said its accounting is in line with industry standards.