French top-flight outfit Olympique Lyonnais hope to raise €300 million (US$316.36 million) from the bond market and will sell some of their assets as the club’s US owner John Textor attempts to reorganise their finances.
Textor’s Eagle Football Holdings completed the takeover of Lyon at
the end of last year, with the club valued at €884 million (US$932.21 million),
by far the highest price ever paid for a French team and part of a wave of US
investment into European football. The
deal, backed by US private equity firm Ares Management, made the Ligue 1 team
the fourth to be affiliated with Eagle Football, joining Premier League side Crystal Palace, Brazilian outfit
Botafogo and Belgian team RWD Molenbeek.
The US businessman told the Financial Times that
he was currently occupied with “paring off non-core assets to focus on
football”, believing Lyon to be “way too heavy on physical assets”. ”. He added that the money generated from
asset sales could be better used to invest in youth academies and player
development, as well as reducing debt linked to the takeover.
As a result, the Ligue 1 club is now inviting bids for
either 40 per cent or full control of the LDLC arena, their new multi-purpose venue that will be
able to house between 12,000 and 16,000 spectators. The intention was for the
arena to host between 100 and 120 events per year, including EuroLeague baszketball games and
esports competitions.
Their US women’s soccer team OL Reign has also been put up
for sale. US businesswoman Michele Kang agreed to acquire a majority stake in the club’s French-based
women’s team in May but already owns the Washington Spirit, who also play in
the National Women’s Soccer League. This means the Reign’s sale is necessary to
avoid a conflict of interest.
A potential deal could be valued at around US$50 million,
given that the NWSL recently
awarded a new expansion franchise based in Boston to a consortium
for a US$53 million fee.
Alongside these potential sales, Textor has hired Goldman
Sachs to raise about €300 million (US$316.36 million) from the bond market,
with the goal of improving the team’s finances. He told the FT that the money
raised would be secured against their stadium, with some of the funds to
refinance existing loans from “about a dozen different banks”.
The outlet also reports that Eagle’s plans to go public via a special
purpose acquisition company (SPAC) has been scrapped. Eagle was thought to have
been targeting a US$1.2 billion valuation, in an attempt to be the first
publicly listed multi-club soccer vehicle.
Lyon was once the dominant force in French football, winning
seven consecutive titles between 2002 and 2008, but its form has slipped in
recent years. The team finished seventh in the league table last year, while it
no longer ranks in Deloitte’s top 30 richest clubs in European football.
Turbulent tenure
Textor’s brief tenure as Lyon owner has been turbulent both
on and off the pitch. Under the original agreement, former owner Jean-Michel
Aulas was due to stay on and run the club for three years. However, Aulas, a
towering figure in French football who had owned Lyon since 1987, was pushed
out after just four months following a disagreement over strategy. Since then,
the relationship has become increasingly acrimonious. Aulas, who still holds an
8 per cent stake in Lyon through his company Holnest, began legal proceedings
related to his departure that resulted in a court order freezing club accounts
containing €14.5mn last month. In a statement, Lyon called the move an “attack”
that was “as violent as it is illegitimate”.
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