Hertha BSC finally closes the Windhorst chapter
Lars Windhorst went down in Bundesliga history with his multimillion-dollar intermezzo
Quelle: dpa/Andreas Gora
Lars Windhorst invested 374 million euros in Hertha BSC. That didn’t help much. Now the club is officially announcing that the businessman has been released. The new investor comes with an urgently needed cash injection.
Hertha BSC has closed the deal with the new investor 777 Partners. The Florida-based investment company is taking over all 64.7 percent of the shares from Lars Windhorst and his company Tennor in Hertha BSC GmbH & Co KGaA, as the Bundesliga soccer team announced on Saturday.
“This is a forward-looking step for Hertha BSC,” said Hertha President Kay Bernstein, according to the announcement. “We would like to thank Josh Wander for his trust in Hertha BSC. This strategic partnership helps us to further advance the restructuring process and the economic consolidation of Hertha BSC. So we are happy to welcome 777 Partners to the Hertha family.”
In the course of the takeover of the shares, the investor will receive two seats on the supervisory board of Hertha BSC & Co, KGaA, which now consists of five members. The new partner will also take on two seats on the company’s Advisory Board. According to media reports, 777 Partners will not only take over Windhorst’s shares, but will also acquire additional shares. This would bring fresh money into the cash-strapped club, which – like the other Bundesliga clubs – has to submit the licensing documents for the coming season to the DFL by March 15th.
777 belong to FC Sevilla and Standard Liège
Windhorst had invested a total of 374 million euros since 2019 – a one-off individual investment for the Bundesliga, which the US company has now replaced. Windhorst’s chapter as a controversial investor at Hertha is thus closed. How much money Windhorst received for his shares remained unknown. This ends a period of unrest and misunderstandings for Berliners. Windhorst announced at the end of November that he wanted to sell his shares in 777 Partners. Since then, negotiations have been going on about the details.
Unlike Windhorst, the new Miami-based investor has a lot of experience in professional football. Since September 2021, the company has increasingly invested in football clubs worldwide from the first to the third division.
In addition to the Paris suburban club Red Star Paris, the portfolio also includes the first division clubs FC Sevilla, Standard Liège, Vasco da Gama from Brazil, Melbourne Victory and the second division club CFC Genoa. The head of the football department has been Don Dransfeld since the end of May 2022, who previously worked as strategic director at English champions Manchester City, including for the takeover of other clubs worldwide.
