OL Groupe, the holding company which oversees the Lyon football club, announced on Thursday the “finalization of the refinancing of the majority of its debt and that of its subsidiary Olympique Lyonnais SASU” for a total amount of 385 million euros.
This finalization follows the “preliminary” agreement with “a group of leading global financial institutions” publicized in early November, according to a press release from the group which is going through a complicated period on a financial and sporting level. After a series of defeats, the club finds itself at the bottom of the Ligue 1 table.
OL Group has been owned since last December by the Eagle group of American John Textor. The implementation of this global refinancing plan allows the two entities to mainly “repay the outstanding long-term stadium debt, its RCF (Revolving Credit Facility) line and PGE loans (editor’s note: loan guaranteed by the State) contracted during the Covid years,” said a press release.
Two “new separate financings for the benefit of Olympique Lyonnais SASU” made it possible to close the operation on Thursday with the assistance of the bank Goldman Sachs as “mandated arranger”, according to the same source.
The first comes from a fundraising amounting to “EUR 320 million amortizable over 20 years, structured around a dedicated common securitization fund under French law”, a first of its kind “for a French football club” , according to OL Groupe. Securitization allows the transformation of debts held by a bank into marketable securities.
The securities of this fund, “backed by commercial receivables assigned as guarantee, essentially generated by the activity of Groupama Stadium” – the stadium and sports and leisure complex of OL Groupe – were subscribed by investors “leading institutions mainly located in the United States”, specifies the press release, without revealing names.
The second financing is provided “from internationally renowned banks” thanks to a raising of EUR 65 million “with five years of maturity” in the form of loans: a first “at variable rate term” of EUR 32.5 million “repayable in fine” – loan whose capital is repaid in one go at maturity – and another of the same amount “renewable at a variable rate”, according to OL Groupe.
This summer, the National Directorate of Management Control (DNCG) of the Professional Football League had imposed restrictions on Olympique Lyonnais in terms of its payroll and transfer compensation, penalizing the club’s recruitment.
But on Tuesday, the financial policeman of French football relaxed its monitoring and OL will therefore be able to recruit this winter, in compliance with its revised upwards forecast budget.
