Spanish football’s FC Barcelona will list its content creation unit Barca Media in the US via a merger with a special purpose acquisition company that values the combined entity at $1 billion.
The club, which won the LaLiga title last year, agreed to combine the unit with a SPAC owned by Swiss private equity fund Mountain Partners, according to a statement. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter and the company will trade on Nasdaq under the ticker “BRME.”
Barca Media controls the Catalan club’s digital media assets, including video content, esports and social media, which has 421 million followers globally.
The deal gives “Barca Media access to the U.S. capital markets to create an even stronger platform to accelerate its multi-pronged growth strategy,” the club said in the statement.
Existing Barca Media shareholders will own 80% of the company.