Barça’s on the ball

vate placement of bonds on Wall Street, split into three €500‐million tranches. The first would have been due on June 30, 2032, and the second on June 30, 2045. The club would have paid in‐terest on the third tranche only until 2045 despite ma‐turing on June 30, 2052.

EL CORTE INGLES has paid a to‐tal of €500 million to finalise its deal with Sheikh Al Thani.

With this transaction, the department store group ac ‐quired 4.2 million of its shares, representing 5.53 per cent of the group’s capital and half of the 10.33 per cent owned by AI Thani through Luxembourg‐registered Primefin.

El Corte Ingles repurchased these shares in June 2022 in an operation originally valued at €385 million. The final amount was increased to €500 million to include compensation and interest, principally as com ‐pensation to Primefin which granted a €1 billion loan to El Corte Ingles in 2015.