Botafogo plays a match against Audax, valid for the Carioca Championship – Vítor Silva / Botafogo
A Eagle Football Holdingsgroup of clubs controlled by the American businessman John Textoris planning to go public through a special purpose acquisition company (SPACs), an unprecedented experience for the soccer. The information is from the British website SportsPro Media.
According to the newspaper Financial Times, Eagle Football intends to make a valuation of US$ 1.2 billion, in order to go public later this year. The deadline has not yet been defined and depends on market conditions.
The IPO could bring serious impacts to clubs controlled by Eagle, such as Botafogo. This is because this initiative would allow the shares of the team’s parent company to be traded on the stock exchange, subject to market fluctuations and moods. Textor’s company commands 90% of Football Anonymous Society (SAF) from the carioca team.
“Blank check companies”
Another important detail that deserves attention is the fact that SPACs are also known as “blank check companies”, which can be publicly traded and thus raise money with the explicit purpose of merging with others for a certain period.
In the case of Eagle Football, all this movement would aim at a potential merger between the group and Iconic Sports Acquisition Corp, SPAC created by Iconic Sports Management. That company recently made a $75 million equity investment in Eagle Football, helping to enable a compra do Lyon.
Created in 2021, Iconic Sports’ SPAC raised $345 million when it was listed. The partnership includes US hedge fund manager Jamie Dinan and former banker Alexander Knaster, who respectively own Milwaukee Bucksyes National Basketball Association (NBA)and Pisa, the second division Italian football club.
In addition to Botafogo and Lyon, Textor’s company owns the Belgian club RWD Molenbeek and Crystal Palaceyes Premier League.
