The president of Estudiantes says he leaves the club in the “best possible hands”

The still president of Students, Ignacio Trianaassured EFE that the sale to the businessman Diego Megia of the majority of the actions means leaving the historic Madrid team in the “best possible hands” since it will mean a “important boost” economical for the entire college.

This Friday the purchase was signed by the investment banking expert and co-founder of the NGO CRIS against Cancer of the shares of Triana himself and Vicente Olivenza, which They control around 50% of the titles of the sports societyin an agreement that also entails a capital increase of 15 million euros to strengthen a club that has been trying to return to the ACB for five seasons.

“Megía leads an ambitious project, and wants to join ACB as quickly as possible,” Triana said in a telephone interview, explaining that during the negotiations a “coordination system” with the new owners to advance in the planning of the team for the next season and that in the coming days the first “news”.

Triana explained that The operation did not depend on promotion to the ACB, that was frustrated again on June 7 when they lost in the final phase against Leyma Coruña, and that the negotiations were advancing until last Thursday “they precipitated events” when a new purchase proposal arrives a total of 28.8 million euros by the businessman Jaime Siles, executive director of the Australian investment fund IFM Investors, and his partner Dimas de Andrés Puyol.

Despite the numbers, Triana and Olivenza opted for the initial option, in their opinion “more solvent”, because Megía’s proposal – of 9 euros per share, for a total of 6.6 million euros in the event of acquiring all of the SAD securities, plus the capital increase of 15 million – meant that 100% of the new capital was “hard cash”, while that of Siles and Andrés Puyol “Only the minority of the money was in capital and the rest was in a promise of sponsorships,” he explained.

Triana indicated that, although there is an offer to purchase all of SAD’s securities, the new owners would be “delighted” to maintain a generous social base of followers after the capital increase and that, although Megía is professionally dedicated to managing an investment fund, he purchases Estudiantes “in a personal capacity” and does it for “help an institution” who knows well and who is “always fan.”

Because, despite the boost that this influx of capital will bring, Triana highlighted that the sale agreement was reached under the premise that the new owner had to respect the identity signs of the Students and? they would not have admitted an offer that went against those values, ”for many millions of euros that they would have put on the table”

The still president acknowledged that he leaves Estudiantes with the “sweet and sour taste” of not having been able to return the team to the ACB after five seasons in LEB Oro, although with the satisfaction that the “enormous sacrifices” economics of recent years have allowed almost settle the pending commitment with the Tax Agencyafter paying a new payment to the public treasury last April, which is now only owed a “million or so” euros.

This has allowed, he indicated, to be “attractive” so that people like Megía have wanted to buy the SAD, an operation that still has to be authorized in the coming weeks by the Higher Sports Council (CSD) and the Estudiantes shareholders in an extraordinary general meeting.