Although Olympique Lyonnais still won against Toulouse (3-0), the club is still in last place in the Ligue 1 football championship. Behind the scenes, there’s also a struggle to get out of a financially confusing period. OL Groupe, the holding company that oversees the Lyon football club, is preparing to “finalise the refinancing of most of its debt”.
This completion follows “preliminary” agreement with “an organization of world-leading monetary institutions,” according to a statement from the organization in early November. The implementation of this global refinancing plan allows the two entities, OL Groupe, owned since last December through the Eagle organization (owned by the American John Textor and its subsidiary Olympique Lyonnais SASU), to “repay the significant long-term debt of the ‘stadium’, its RCF (Revolving Credit Facility) line and the PGE loans. state -secured loan) taken out during the Covid years,” according to a newArray
Two “separate new financings to take advantage of Olympique Lyonnais SASU” made it possible to close the transaction last Thursday with the help of Goldman Sachs in “its capacity as an authorized intermediary”. The first comes from a fundraiser of “€320 million to repay over 20 years, structured around a securitisation mutual fund committed under French law”. Such a first “for a French football club”, according to OL Groupe.
Also readFootball: Olympique Lyonnais has reached an agreement to refinance its debt
Securitization allows the transformation of receivables held through a bank into marketable securities. The fund’s securities, “backed by industrial loans assigned as collateral, generated basically through the activity of the Groupama Stadium – OL Groupe’s stadium and sports and recreational complex – were subscribed through leading institutional investment companies located basically in the United States,” the statement said, without revealing names.
Le second financement est assuré « auprès de banques de renommée internationale » grâce à une levée de 65 millions d’euros « à cinq ans de maturité » sous forme de prêts : un premier « à terme à taux variable »de 32,5 millions d’euros « remboursable in fine » – prêt dont le capital est remboursé en une seule fois à l’échéance – et un autre du même montant « renouvelable à taux variable », selon OL Groupe.
This summer, the Professional Football League’s National Directorate of Management Control (DNCG) imposed restrictions on Olympique Lyonnais’ salary bill and fees, penalizing the club’s recruitment.
But last Tuesday, French soccer’s monetary watchdog relaxed its vigilance and OL will be allowed to hire this winter, according to its revised interim budget. A role that falls in part to the new executive leader, Laurent Prud’homme, 49, whose In mid-November, the breakdown of sports outlet L’Equipe was announced.
(With AFP)
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