When Villarreal was recapitalized at some point in the late 1980's, the capital base of the S.A.D. was only 600,000 euros. When Sr. Roig became involved in Villarreal, he was therefore unable to do so by increasing the club's capital, but instead advanced funds to Villarreal CF, S.A.D. as debt (subordinated to the bank debt of the club, I expect). Now the club has decided to increase its capital base to 138 million euros.
The €138 million will be raised primarily by converting €111 million of funds already advanced to the club to equity (I'm not sure of the exact details since the Marca article mentions a participating credit involving banks guaranteed by Sr. Roig), but in addition the club is offering the general public the opportunity to buy shares and become a "socio" of Villarreal.
At the moment there are only 128 shareholders in Villarreal, and they wiill be allowed to purchase up to 200 shares for each exiting share of the club they own. Then the general public, starting July 1, will be able to buy shares, I guess as many as they want. The price is €60.10 (between $85 and $90) per share. In order to participate at the shareholders' meeting, you need to own at least four shares.
This plan is clearly motivated by the new FIFA Financial Fair Play regulations, which go into effect in 2012. After that, the ability of a club owner to convert debt to equity will be limited. In addition, the plan makes explicit what has always been implicit, that the "debt" to Sr. Roig was not expected to be repaid. Finally, as Sr. Roig noted, this plan gives Villarreal fans an opportunity to buy a small stake in the club for sentimental reasons.
And, of course, the sale of shares does bring some extra cash into the coffers. The average attendance at El Madrigal was around 18,700 in La Liga; if each of those fans bought one share, that would be extra €1.2 million for the team.
There's nothing in the article to indicate buyers need to reside in Spain--certainly Barcelona and Real Madrid have overseas shareholders like this--so I am assuming VillarrealUSA members could do so as well. We will let you know if we hear more about this.