Since there isn´t any Portuguese League or Champions League soccer this week news is kind of slow. Benfica did however publish their anual financial report yesterday and there is some good news on that front.

This was the first ever yearly profit for Benfica after 3 years of continuous improvement since Benfica became a public company. Total profit for the 2006/07 reporting period were 15.3 million Euros, the equivalent to almost $22 million. Highlighted by a 31% increase in revenue and an only 5% increase in costs. In the previous year Benfica had lost 1.2 million Euros ($1.7 million) during the same period.

Benfica´s total revenue were 83.3 million Euros while total expenses were 68 million Euros. Benfica was actually able to lower total salary expenses for the soccer team. Cashflow, the actual money generated before depreciation and amortizations, was also positive by over 30 million Euros. SL Benfica has a total debt of about 154 million Euros which was basically unchanged from last years numbers.

Benfica stock was trading at about 2.60 Euros ($3.60) per share, down considerably from the 3.5 Euros that Joe Berardo offered for Benfica only a few weeks back. I wasn´t able to find the per share information for this numbers since financial reports in Portugal are not as detailed as in the States.