John Textor’s press release fell

Olympique Lyonnais have had enough. Faced with the deadlines constantly granted for the takeover of the club by John Textor, the Rhone club had published a press release to set an ultimatum for the American businessman. Textor, who is also the boss of Botafogo, had until December 7 (yesterday) to provide the necessary elements for the takeover of Les Gones.

Annoyed at no longer being able to sell, the Lyon decision-makers had even considered turning to Foster Gillett, another interested American investor and who was Jean-Michel Aulas’ first choice. A heavy climate which had even led OL to consider action against the Raine bank, the institution responsible for the sale of the club. In the end, OL Groupe has just published a press release this morning in which the situation seems to be on the right track.

Textor remains confident

“OL Groupe recalls that the company Eagle Football Holdings LLC1, controlled by Mr. John Textor, has undertaken with its main historical shareholders (Pathé, IDG Capital and Holnest, hereinafter the “Sellers”) to acquire 39,201,514 OL Groupe shares at a price of €3 per share and 789,824 OL Groupe OSRANEs at a price of €265.57 per OSRANE. The acquisition contract is firm and unconditional; in particular, it does not include conditions relating to the financing of the operation or third-party agreements. Eagle Football has also undertaken to subscribe, subject to the completion of these acquisitions, to a reserved capital increase of OL Groupe for a total amount of €86 million (the transactions described above being hereinafter together referred to as the “Operation”). This capital increase was approved by the general meeting of July 29, 2022. With regard to the debt of the Olympique Lyonnais group, it is recalled that all of the lenders of the Olympique Lyonnais group have given their consent to the Operation ( “waivers”)2, with effect on closing. In the press release of December 4, it was announced that the Sellers and OL Groupe had granted Eagle Football a final additional period of time to obtain the agreements allowing it to finalize the operations to which it has committed.the statement said.

An ultimatum to which Textor visibly reacted. “At the express request of the board of directors of OL Groupe, Mr. John Textor, majority shareholder of Eagle Football, today indicated the following information to the Company and the Sellers: “Eagle Football, as of November 17, has obtained all the financing necessary for the Transaction and signed the corresponding firm agreements with debt and equity investors, agreements which are still in place.Following the announcement of June 2022, we were asked by OLG banks to provide additional funds to make a partial debt repayment, and we have also secured additional funding to meet this request. We are now confident that we have the agreement in principle of all parties to proceed with the contribution in kind to Eagle Football of my various participations in football clubs in the United Kingdom, Brazil and Belgium. We are therefore confident that the agreements which remain to be obtained and to be finalized should be obtained and signed in the short term, so that all the conditions would be satisfied for the completion of the Transaction. The sums secured under the financing contracts between Eagle Football and its debt and equity investors would then be ready to be made available in order to be able to proceed with the completion (closing) of the Operation and the resulting takeover bid. will follow as soon as possible”. So the process continues. Waiting for a new twist?