SANTIAGO (Reuters) - The administrator for Latin America's only publicly traded soccer team, Colo Colo, said on Wednesday it expects to pay its first dividends in 2008 if earnings trends continue.
Blanco y Negro COO.SN, the administrator for Chile's most successful soccer club, expected a good fiscal year following the sale of midfielder Matias Fernandez to Spain's Villareal for $9 million.
"If certain perhaps optimistic conditions prevail, we should earn more (money) this year than last ... I think we should be distributing a dividend next year for the first time," Blanco y Negro Chairman Cristian Varela said at the Reuters Latin American Investment Summit in Santiago.
He said the sale of Fernandez would give 2007 earnings a nudge in the right direction.
Blanco y Negro had 2006 earnings of 673.7 million pesos ($1.2 million), compared with a loss of 2.085 million pesos in 2005.
One of Blanco y Negro's chief shareholders is multi- millionaire Sebastian Pinera, one of the main owners of LAN Airlines SA LAN.SN.
Blanco y Negro listed in mid 2005 to help bring the club, the nation's most popular team, back from the brink of bankruptcy.
It was trading at 310 pesos a share on Wednesday.
Varela does not plan to sell players to drive the company's earnings, however, and has pledged to generate income by means other than simple ticket sales.
"We need to generate these resources to help pay the dividend, which we are obliged to pay and which all the shareholders are expecting," he added.
(For more on the Reuters Latin American Investment Summit, see ID:nN15302956
(Additional reporting by Juan Jose Lagorio and Javier Leira)
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