Lazio shares plunge amid capital gains probe of Serie A clubs
06/04/2023 11:51
MILAN, April 6 (Reuters) - Shares of Italian Serie A
soccer club Lazio LAZI.MI fell sharply on Thursday a day after
the launch of an investigation into allegations of false
accounting on capital gains from players' transfer deals.
The stock plunged more than 8% on rumours of possible
sporting penalties, a Milan-based trader told Reuters.
Italy's tax police on Wednesday searched and seized evidence
from the headquarters of the Rome-based club, prosecutors in the
town of Tivoli, near Rome, said in a statement.
Lazio said in a statement it was confident that "any
misunderstandings or doubts" related to the alleged illicit
actions would be cleared up quickly.
The offices of fellow Serie A club Salernitana, which used
to be owned by Lazio chairman Claudio Lotito, were also searched
as part of the Tivoli investigation.
Salernitana said it would work with authorities but noted
that its current owners had nothing to do with the deals under
investigation, dating to 2017-2021.
Lotito sold the southern Italian club in January 2022.
A separate investigation by Rome prosecutors, announced at
the same time, led to more tax police inspections and seizures
at Roma, the city rivals to Lazio.
Roma denied any wrongdoing and said it was "cooperating with
the competent authorities and hopes that full clarity will be
provided on the matter as soon as possible".
Rome and Tivoli prosecutors said they ordered the seizure of
documents related to transfer deals at Lazio, Roma and
Salernitana, as well as on the methods the clubs used to set
transaction prices.
The investigations follow a probe launched by prosecutors in
Turin into alleged false accounting on players' transfers that
in January led to a sports court docking Juventus JUVE.MI ,
Italy's most successful soccer club, 15 points this Serie A
season.
By 1049 GMT, Lazio's shares were down by 6.7%,
underperforming a 0.8% uptick in Milan's all-share index
.FTITLMS .
(Reporting by Federico Maccioni, additional reporting by
Claudia Cristoferi, editing by Alvise Armellini, Robert Birsel)
((Federico.maccioni@thomsonreuters.com; +39 3420768883;))