FC Schalke 04, Germany’s third-largest football club with over 200,000 members, successfully refinanced its outstanding corporate bonds 2021/2026 and 2022/2027 ahead of schedule in November 2025.
Under the motto „Zukunft zeichnen – für Schalker Chancen“ (“Shaping the Future – for Schalke Opportunities“), Königsblau issued its sixth corporate bond on the capital market – achieving an exceptional placement success. Team iron has been supporting FC Schalke since the first corporate bond issuance in 2012 in financial communication.
With an attractive interest coupon of 6.50% and an additional Bundesliga bonus in case of promotion, FC Schalke 04 offered fans and investors the opportunity to actively shape Königsblau’s future path. Due to particularly strong demand, the initially targeted bond volume of €50 million was increased to a total of €90 million. The successful issuance provides S04 with financial planning security and serves as an essential building block for further strengthening its financial structure.
Our contribution to the success of the issue
The iron advisory team, consisting of Dariusch Manssuri, Frederic Hilke, and Robin Terrana, played a key role in preparing the project, developing the bond story, and strategically positioning it in the capital market across all project phases. iron also supported the dissemination of financial communications, dialogue with financial press and bond media, and communication via S04’s website.
“Our goal as communications advisors was to jointly address the interests of fans and capital market investors in a coordinated manner and translate them into a coherent bond story through clear messages and targeted communication. In short: the story clearly convinced and significantly contributed to the success of the issuance.”
Frederic Hilke, Head of Investor Relations, iron AG
The strong placement is also the result of a successful capital market approach and the strategic involvement of media, investors, and fans. The issuance was further supported by a consistently positive capital market history that Schalke 04 can look back on. A particular highlight was a digital investor call on AIRTIME with over 600 registrations and well over 300 participants (AIRTIME record!).
The club was additionally supported by Linklaters as capital markets legal advisor, B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Aktiengesellschaft as sole bookrunner, Bankhaus Gebr. Martin AG as paying agent, ICF Bank AG as order book manager, subscription initiator, and specialist, valantic Transaction Solutions GmbH as technical service provider for the subscription platform, and Baker Tilly as debt advisor.
Further information on the issuance can be found here.
