Football Business Desk
majority acquisition · France · Ligue 1

Olympique Lyonnais (OL Groupe)

Eagle Football Holdings LLC (John Textor) acquisition · 20 Jun 2022

Buyer
Eagle Football Holdings LLC (John Textor)
Seller
Holnest (Jean-Michel Aulas family holding), Pathé (Jérôme Seydoux-related entities: SOJER/OJEJ), IDG European Sports Investment Limited
Stake acquired
66.6%
Control
Yes
Reported consideration
~€199m
Implied equity value
€530m
League
Ligue 1
Country
France
Confidence
HIGH
Transaction overview

Eagle Football Holdings LLC (John Textor) acquired a 66.6% majority stake in Olympique Lyonnais (OL Groupe) from Holnest (Jean-Michel Aulas family holding) and others, announced 20 Jun 2022, closing 19 Dec 2022.

Reported consideration was ~€199m. The stated 100% equity value was €530m. Announced enterprise value was €798m. €86m of new capital went into the club.

Nearest pre-acquisition revenue was €253m (FY 2021/22), an equity value / revenue multiple of 2.10x.

Announced
20 Jun 2022
Closed
19 Dec 2022
Stake after transaction
80.1%
Status
completed
Valuation

Reported consideration

What the buyer reportedly paid for the stake

CALCULATED

Implied 100% equity value

Calculated: consideration ÷ stake acquired

CONFIRMED

Reported club valuation

UNAVAILABLE

Enterprise value

Only shown when debt/cash near the transaction date is established

CONFIRMED

Debt assumed / restructured

UNAVAILABLE

Primary capital injection

CONFIRMED

Total announced investment commitment

Commitments are not purchase price and not valuation

UNAVAILABLE
Equity value / revenue:
CALCULATED
Club at acquisition

Nearest pre-acquisition financial year: 2021/22

Revenue

REPORTED

Wages

UNAVAILABLE

EBITDA

UNAVAILABLE

Net debt

UNAVAILABLE

Net income

UNAVAILABLE
Analyst noteWhat is known, what is uncertain, and how figures were derived

This is the best-documented deal in the batch because OL Groupe is Euronext Paris-listed, generating an AMF-filed joint press release with precise, distinct valuation metrics: (1) enterprise value €798m as of July 1 2022 (€884m post-capital-increase), (2) fully-diluted 100% equity value €529.5m at the €3.00/share offer price, and (3) an €86m primary capital increase subscribed by Eagle Football.

Sources (4)
  1. 2022-06-20 — “'THE LAUNCH OF A FRIENDLY TENDER OFFER AT A PRICE OF 3 EUROS PER SHARE...CORRESPONDING TO AN ESTIMATED ENTERPRISE VALUE OF OL GROUPE OF 798 MILLION EUROS AS OF JULY 1, 2022 AND 884 MILLION EUROS FOLLOWING THE CAPITAL INCREASE'; 'The price of €3.00 per share values 100% of the share capital of OL Groupe (i.e. equity value) at approximately €529.5 million on a fully diluted basis'; capital increase of ~€86m; Blocks Acquisition of 66.56% (Pathé 19.26%, IDG 19.74%, Holnest 27.56%); Eagle Football to hold ~80.13% individually / ~88.55% in concert with Holnest post-transaction.”

  2. 2022-05-13 · fr — “9-month 2021/22 total revenue reached €193.5m (+29% YoY); combined with prior media reporting of full-season 2021/22 figures (total activity revenue €252.6m incl. transfers, up 42%; €160.5m excl. transfers, up 36%), used here as the closest pre-acquisition full financial year. As a listed company OL Groupe's audited Document d'Enregistrement Universel would be the stronger FILED-tier source but was not directly fetched in this pass.”

  3. 2022-12-20 — “Club's own news page confirming closing of the Eagle Football transactions; URL resolved with HTTP 200 but page content could not be extracted via the fetch tool in this pass (returned empty), so closing-date evidence status is REPORTED rather than CONFIRMED and is corroborated by ESPN/Inside World Football reporting.”

  4. 2022-12-20 — “Reported completion of Eagle Football Holdings' purchase of Olympique Lyonnais on December 19-20, 2022. (Sourced via search snippet; not independently re-fetched in this pass.)”