Eagle Football Holdings has filed a takeover bid for the 10.24% of the capital of Olympique Lyonnais (OL) which still escapes it, the Financial Markets Authority (AMF) announced on Thursday in a press release. “On June 22, 2023, Natixis, acting on behalf of Eagle Football Holdings Bidco Limited, filed with the Autorité des marchés financiers a draft simplified tender offer for the shares of Olympique Lyonnais Groupe “Said the AMF, recalling that this project had” been announced on June 20, 2022 “.
This purchase will be made at a price of 3 euros per share, ie an operation at nearly 53 million euros, Eagle Football not yet directly or indirectly holding 17,610,237 shares. The AMF specifies that Eagle Football does not intend to withdraw OL from the Paris Stock Exchange following this operation.
The action of Olympique Lyonnais Groupe had been suspended since the opening of the Paris financial center on Thursday morning “at the request of the company, pending the publication of a press release and until further notice” , according to a notice published on the site of the stock market operator Euronext. “The quotation of Olympique Lyonnais group titles will be resumed on June 23”, that is to say Friday, indicated the AMF.
With the completion of its takeover by multimillionaire John Textor and his holding company Eagle Football, Olympique Lyonnais went under the American flag last December, after six months of negotiations and several postponements. The entry of Eagle Football to 77% of the capital of OL Groupe represented a historic turning point for the L1 club, chaired for 35 years by Jean-Michel Aulas.
Eagle Football had undertaken at the end of June 2022 to acquire all the shares and half of the Osranes (bonds convertible into shares issued to finance the construction of Groupama Stadium) held by Holnest, the Aulas family holding company. Plus all the shares held by Pathé and the Chinese investment fund IDG Capitals. It also subscribed to an 86 million euro capital increase by OL Groupe.
Jean-Michel Aulas, historical figure of the club, was dismissed on May 5 from his position as CEO in favor of John Textor. He was appointed honorary chairman and must remain a director as long as his Holnest holding company holds voting rights and shares in the company. In addition, Eagle Football and OL Groupe must definitively finalize, by the end of June, the sale of OL Féminin to the American businesswoman Michele Kang, as well as the sale of the American club OL Reign, owned by the OL, to eliminate conflicts of interest within the American Women’s Soccer League (NWSL).
