Cristiano Ronaldo's Juventus Is Said to Plan Debut Bond Offering

(Bloomberg) -- Juventus Football Club SpA intends to make its debut in the euro bond market, offering investors a chance to finance Italy’s most-decorated soccer franchise.

The club plans to sell 150 million euros ($169 million) of notes maturing in about five years, according to a person familiar with the matter, who is not authorized to speak publicly and asked not to be identified. Morgan Stanley and UBI Banca SpA will manage the sale, the person said.

Juventus, which signed five-time Ballon d’Or winner Cristiano Ronaldo last year, follows local rival Inter Milan and England-based Manchester United into bond markets. Inter priced 300 million euros of five-year notes in December 2017, which now yield about 4.8 percent, while Manchester United sold dollar and pound notes in 2010 to refinance debt from a leveraged buyout.

Turin-based Juventus has dominated Italian soccer in recent years, finishing last season with a seventh consecutive domestic league title and a fourth straight win in the Italian Cup. The 120-year-old club was also the topic of a two-season TV series on Netflix.

To contact the reporter on this story: Maciej Onoszko in Warsaw at monoszko@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Hannah Benjamin at hbenjamin1@bloomberg.net, Neil Denslow, Charles Daly

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