The raid of financiers on French football


Jean-Michel Aulas (right), president of OL, and American businessman John Textor, Tuesday, in Lyon. The latter is preparing to invest 800 million euros to become the majority shareholder of the club. OLIVIER CHASSIGNOLE/AFP

DECRYPTION – The takeover of Olympique Lyonnais by the American fund Eagle Football Holding LLC completes an unprecedented series of investments.

It’s not just the extension of Kylian Mbappé’s contract at Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) that is driving the football summer. This is also moving at club level. On Monday evening, Olympique Lyonnais (OL) announced that it had entered into exclusive negotiations with Eagle Football Holding LLC, the investment fund of American businessman John Textor. He is preparing to put nearly 800 million euros on the table, to buy the shares of both Pathé, IDG Capital (40% between them) and gradually Holnest – the family holding of the president of the OL, Jean-Michel Aulas. At the beginning of spring, the announcement of the first two to want to withdraw from the Rhone club had opened the door to a change of owner.

The operation comes at a time when French football has never aroused so much appetite on the part of foreign investors: at the same time, Saint-Étienne and Le Havre, two other historic clubs, are actively discussing with American interlocutors. These last…

This article is for subscribers only. You have 86% left to discover.

Cultivating your freedom is cultivating your curiosity.

Keep reading your article for €0.99 for the first month

Already subscribed? Login



Source link -93