The sale of the Lyon club to the American businessman has once again been postponed.
The beginnings of an XXL hiccup? Or a logical postponement in the face of such a major operation? Still, the sale of Olympique Lyonnais to the group controlled by American billionaire John Textor has been postponed until November 17, OL announced in a press release on Monday. The conclusion of this sale valued at nearly 800 million euros, first announced for September 30, had been postponed for the first time to October 21.
“To date, substantial progress has been made on all the steps that are necessary to complete the operation,” indicates the press release sent on Monday jointly by OL Groupe, Holnest (the family holding of Jean-Michel Aulas), IDG Capital (the Chinese investors who sell their shares), Pathé and Eagle Football (the company of John Textor).
Jean-Michel Aulas continues to display his confidence…
“Eagle Football has informed OL Groupe that advanced discussions are underway with identified debt and equity investors ready to support the transaction.“, specifies the press release, recalling that the commitments of the American are not”subject to no financing conditions“. The historic boss of OL, Jean-Michel Aulas, recalled in mid-October that the sale was made “without suspensive conditions», this inducing penalties for the buyer in the event of withdrawal. The press release recalls that if one of the steps planned by November 17 is not carried out, this gives rise to a right of termination for the benefit of the selling shareholders.
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“Substantial progress has been made on all stages“: with regard to the debt of the Olympique Lyonnais group, “all lenders have given their consent», identified investors are «ready to support the transaction“And, in addition to the internal checks on the lenders, it remains to obtain the authorizations, in particular from the football authorities, specifies the press release.
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Behind the scenes or on the field, OL are playing very big in the coming weeks
Through Eagle Football Holdings LLC, John Textor is to acquire all of the shares and half of the Osranes (bonds convertible into shares to finance the construction of Groupama Stadium) held by Holnest – the holding company of the Aulas family -, plus the all of the shares and Osranes held by Pathé (Jérôme Seydoux) and by the Chinese investment fund IDG Capitals. Holnest holds 27.72% of the capital. Pathé and IDG, which have 19.36% and 19.85% respectively, announced on March 9 that they wanted to sell their shares.
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OL Groupe experienced a “sharp rebound» of its activity with a turnover up 42% (to 252.5 million euros for the 2021/2022 financial year, which enabled it to raise the bar after a historic loss linked to the Covid pandemic -19 (-107 million) during the previous year, even if the holding still shows a net loss of 55 million euros.
The club is also going through a bad sporting patch, but ended a series of six games without a win on Saturday (5 defeats and a draw) by winning 2-1 in Montpellier and remains eighth, ten points behind Lorient (3rd) and Lens ( 2nd) who occupy the qualifying places for the Champions League, his stated objective. Whether behind the scenes or on the pitch, the coming weeks for OL promise to be decisive.
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