The Intercity Football Club of San Juan de Alicante made history last Friday by debuting on the stock market, becoming the first Spanish team to go public.

The club from Alicante debuted on BME Growth (formerly known as MAB) with flying colours – its valuation rose by 40%. Just 4 years after its creation and with a valuation of 5.6 million, they have become the thirteenth company to enter BME Growth so far this year, and the third to do so coming from the Pre-Market Environment.

Intercity soars 40% upon its debut on BME Growth

Intercity team before a match

The club’s shares, with the ticker symbol “CITY”, started with a reference value of € 1.2, a price that was frozen during the entire session without quoting. The wide gap difference between the numerous buy orders and the few sell orders “strangled” the value until 4:00 p.m. After BME increased the fluctuation range from 20 to 40%, trading began and the session closed with a stock price of € 1.68.

The club founded by Salvador Marti and Javier Mirá in 2017 leads the way in sports management in Spain, distancing itself from the traditional management model of Spanish teams. As they both explained during an interview on El Larguero on Cadena Ser, semi-professional clubs in lower leagues tend to lose money and only survive thanks to sponsors. When sponsors stop financing, clubs are left heavily indebted and end up disappearing, a common occurrence.

A new model of economic and sport management of football teams is possible

Intercity was born with the aim of showing that there is another way to finance junior football clubs in Spain. And judging from its results, both in terms of sport and economic performance, it seems that it works quite well. In 4 years, the first team has been promoted three times and currently competes in the 2nd REEF Division. The club also has a women’s team in the first regional league of Valencia, a men’s B team in the regional league, a beach football team and a junior football school.

Investors are the key to the project. By atomizing their shareholders, they obtain the necessary financing to grow and to make their followers feel the club as their own. This way, the club is supported by the shareholders instead of relying on a sponsor.

Transparency and public limited sports company as legal form, the bases of the project

Managing the club in the same way that companies are managed is exactly what the Intercity board of directors are doing. By adopting the public limited sports company as their legal form, they have achieved a solid business project, based on good governance and transparency.

Intercity executive organization chart

Business management and IPOs are not new to their founders. Salvador Marti and Javier Mirá are two entrepreneurs who already rang the bell in 2014 with FacePhi, a facial recognition technology company currently valued at more than 67 million euros. Undoubtedly, their experience and ambition in the business world mean that a great future awaits the Alicante club.

At Euroffers we hope to see Intercity competing in the big leagues very soon. Good luck in this new stage as a listed company!