Lionel Messi IPO: World Champion and Argentine footballer Lionel Messi on Tuesday, December 31, carried out a listing of his real estate properties with an estimated portfolio value of $232 million on the Spanish digital markets, reported the news agency Bloomberg.
The company is known as Edificio Rostower Socimi and has been listed as a real estate investment trust (REIT). The REIT owns seven hotels, commercial real estate for shops and offices, and houses, according to the draft papers cited by the news agency.
The REIT share price was set at €57.40 on December 30 on a small, digital-only Spanish index called the Portfolio Stock Exchange, as per the news report.
The real estate investment trust's chief executive officer (CEO) told the news agency Reuters that it plans to open up to new investors without elaborating on the plan's details.
The exchange was launched in 2023 and is under the supervision of the Bank of Spain. The exchange allows trading when a company aims to sell shares or increase its capital, as per the agency report.
Messi's wife, Antonela Roccuzzo, is the board's vice-president along with Alfonso Nebot, who runs Messi's family office, and Ramon Adell, who is a board member of Spanish energy company Naturgy, as per the report.
Messi was born in Argentina but is now based in Miami as a player for the local team. The football legend spent most of his life in Spain, where he moved as a 12-year-old boy to join FC Barcelona as one of its young members.
After Spain, he lived in Paris for two years and then later left for Miami in 2023, a week after leading Argentina to win the FIFA World Cup 2022. Messi’s move to list Rostower happened relatively quickly. The firm only became a REIT in the middle of December, days after an attempt by the Spanish government to increase the tax on real estate trusts was blocked in parliament, according to a Bloomberg report.
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