MAPFRE AM celebrates the victory of Borussia Dortmund

A brace from Haller and another goal from Brandt gave Borussia Dortmund a 3-0 victory over Augsburg last weekend, taking them into the decisive last day of the season with a two-point advantage. MAPFRE AM celebrated this victory like all other fans of the German team and, specifically, the MAPFRE AM Behavioral Fund, which has invested a large part of its portfolio in sports companies and soccer teams.

In fact, Borussia Dortmund is the security to which this product is most exposed, accounting for 9.5%. And although the fund’s manager, Luis García, has always defended that these securities are invested in after performing an exhaustive analysis of the fundamentals and applying a very long-term investment horizon, rather than because of specific milestones as these that can cause significant volatility in value, there is no doubt that news like this is a joy. “From a financial perspective, winning the league could mean increased media revenue, higher sponsorship income and an increase in the club's attractiveness to potential players, fans and sponsors, which should mean an increase in income in the future," said García.

Investors also know this and, for this reason, the club’s value shot up on the stock market by more than 15% during last Monday’s session. Even so, García explained that this euphoria must be handled with care: “The market tends to overreact to both positive and negative news, and even more so when it comes to soccer teams. The potential increase in revenue from winning the league, while positive and welcome, should only be marginal. For example, the financial impact of being eliminated from the Champions League is very limited in many cases, although soccer teams tend to react very negatively when this happens,” he added.

García, a major advocate of ‘value’, considers that “some soccer teams are undervalued from the perspective of fundamentals”. “In our opinion, Borussia Dortmund is a clear example of this. It recently posted 9M 2023 EBITDA of €110m, has no financial debt, owns Signal Iduna Park stadium and appears to be willing to sell Jude Bellingham for €120-140m. However, its market capitalization is only €550 million”, he concluded. For similar reasons, in addition to Borussia Dortmund, the fund invests in Ajax and Olympique Lyon.  

Consult the fund’s latest data sheet here