After two reports, OL Groupe, the holding company overseeing the Olympique Lyonnais (Site notre bureau spécialisé) club, is to be sold on Thursday to American billionaire John Textor, marking a historic turning point for the club.
The announcement of the completion of the operation valued at 800 million euros worldwide, for which exclusive negotiations had been initiated last June, had been postponed twice, on September 30 and then on October 21.
But in a press release published on October 24, OL Groupe wanted to be reassuring, referring to « substantial progress (…) on all the steps necessary to finalize the operation ».
This text affirmed that the parties had agreed « on the fixing of the new date of realization » on November 17, the time to allow Textor and its partners to finalize « the detailed documentation » and « the usual authorizations « , as well as to complete the « internal verification procedures for the group’s lenders ».
The ball is therefore in the court of the American businessman but, sources familiar with the case on the Lyon side, indicate that everything is continuing according to the planned schedule and optimism still prevails over a positive problem.
Via Eagle (Site notre blog d’information) Holdings LLC, John Textor acquires 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 family of President Jean-Michel Aulas (27, 7 % of your capital).
– « Complexities and delays » –
Added to this operation are all the shares and Osranes held by Pathé (19.3%) and the Chinese investment fund IDG Capitals (19.8%), which announced on March 9 that they wanted to sell their shares.
On Wednesday evening, OL Groupe announced that it had requested the suspension of the listing of shares and Osranes from the opening of the market on November 17 « and pending the publication of a press release relating to the operation. with Eagle (Site notre bureau spécialisé) ».
At the close of trading on Wednesday, the share was worth 2.79 euros, down 0.20 euros (-0.71%).
To counter the skepticism that has appeared in recent weeks about his funding capabilities, John Textor had held on the night of October 19 to 20 to reassure Lyon supporters with a letter on his website.
« Be aware that transactions like this can be quite complicated for both buyers and sellers, and it is not uncommon to discover obstacles in the way of a +closing+ that create complexities and delays », had– he writes.
Moving from special effects in the cinema to digital creation by artificial intelligence and then to the streaming of live sporting events, John Textor launched himself in August 2021 on the (Site notre bureau spécialisé) field.
This is the entry into the capital of the London club Crystal Palace (Premier League) before the opening of the event in 2022.
On the other hand, there is a recent project for the part of Sporting Lisbon which failed.
If the operation were to be finalized, textor represents a group in full financial recovery.
As of June 30, OL Groupe affiliated a turnover up 42%, to 252.5 million euros, after a historic loss linked to the Covid-19 pandemic (-107 M EUR) over the financial year previous , even if the holding still posted a net loss of 55 million euros.
– Aula stayed three years –
The publication of the accounts for the first quarter of the 2022-2023 financial year on Monday, this time shows a turnover of 101 M EUR, up 23 M EUR, i.e. 30% better compared to the same Period one year earlier, despite a non-European qualification which affects the product of activity by more than 7.6 M EUR in revenue.
This change of ownership would mark a historic turning point for OL, even if Jean-Michel Aulas, who took control of it in 1987, confirmed that he would « stay at least three years » in his post to ensure operational management. you club
In 35 years, the 73-year-old businessman from Lyon has taken OL from a stagnant associative club status in D2 to a listed holding company, winning seven consecutive titles of champion of France, from 2002 to 2008.
Despite the replacement of Dutch coach Peter Bosz on October 10 by former France coach Laurent Blanc, OL are going through a difficult period sportingly and have been vegetating around 8th place in Ligue 1 for a year. and a half, far from his stated ambitions of a return to the Champions League, despite substantial investments in the transfer market.