Dortmund log record earnings
August 22, 2013
Champions League finalists Borussia Dortmund logged a net profit of 51.2 million euros ($68.4 million) for the 2012/2013 season, Germany's only stock exchange-listed football club announced Thursday.
Bottom-line earnings thus rose by about 86 percent season on season and meant the best financial result for Dortmund in their more than 100-year history.
Revenues in the season under review climbed by some 42 percent to total 305 million euros, thus only trailing those of current Bundesliga-Cup-Champions League treble winners Bayern Munich.
Team reshuffle
Borussia Dortmund's co-managing directors, Hans-Joachim Watzke and Thomas Tress, announced investors would see their dividends raised from 6 to 10 cents per share. A dividend was first paid out for the previous season, over a decade after the club went public back in the year 2000.
"The stunning business result has mainly been driven by transfers," said Tress. "The money earned in this sector has been reinvested without any delay in further improving the club's quality."
Tress pointed to the spectacular sale of star midfielder Mario Götze (pictured) to Bayern that had washed 37 million euros into the club's coffers. In return, Dortmund signed Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang from St. Etienne for 13 million euros and Armenian Henrikh Mkhitaryan for 25 million euros.
hg/dr (Reuters, dpa)