The formalization of the sale of OL Groupe, the holding company which oversees Olympique Lyonnais, to American billionaire John Textor has been postponed until October 21, the group citing technical steps to be finalized. “This additional time will be used to finalize the legal documentation and the last steps prior to the completion of the operation”, explains a press release from OL Groupe received by AFP on Friday evening about this takeover valued at nearly 800 million euros, and which was initially expected on September 30.
In the morning, the group announced the postponement of the operation “in the next few days”, ensuring that the sale remained on track. On Friday, the OL Groupe share fell 0.35% on the Paris Stock Exchange, to be fixed at 2.82 euros at the close.
Date indicative
On Wednesday, a source familiar with the matter told AFP that the closing operation was taking its course and warned that an announcement delayed for a few days could not be ruled out, as can sometimes happen in transactions of this volume. The date of September 30 was initially brought forward for information purposes in a prospectus sent to shareholders after the Extraordinary General Meeting of OL Groupe on July 29.
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 the Groupama stadium) held by Holnest -the holding company of the Aulas family-, plus the all shares and Osranes held by Pathé (Jérôme Seydoux) and 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 by mandating the Raine bank to do so.
However, to finance the operation, Textor, which must initially take 79% of the shares against 8% for Holnest, is not coming alone. The American businessman relied on investors like James Salter (owner of around thirty brands like Reebok and Sports illustrated) and Bill Foley (owner of the Las Vegas ice hockey club).
John Textor is already present in the capital of the London club Crystal Palace and majority shareholder of Botafogo, in Brazil, and RWD Molenbeek (2nd Belgian div.).