Dortmund pays soccer dividend
September 11, 2012Borussia Dortmund was able to boost sales to a total of 191 million euros ($243 million) in the 2011/2012 German soccer season, posting a 34.3-million-euro net profit, the German soccer champions announced Tuesday.
In the season - which saw Borussia Dortmund win the Bundesliga championship for a second time in a row, in addition to becoming national cup winners - sales were primarily driven by a "surge" in income from broadcasting rights, as well as from a series of "lucrative" transfers of players.
The club, which is Germany's only publicly listed soccer team, said it was able to reduce its debt by 15.5 million euros to a total of 40.6 million in 2012.
However, shareholders in the club would get just six euro cents per share, Borussia Dortmund said, as only about 11 percent of the profit - approximately 3.7 million euros - would be paid out as dividend.
As a result, Borussia Dortmund shares dropped half a percentage point to 2.56 euros on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange Tuesday, underlining that the stock - issued at 11 euros per share in 2000 - might just be a good investment for die-hard Dortmund supporters.
uhe, cpp (Reuters, dpa)