Investment fund IDG Capital Partners has agreed to acquire a 20 percent stake in French soccer club Olympique Lyonnais (Lyon), the club said in a statement on its website on Friday.
IDG, based in China, will invest 100 million euros ($112 million) in buying shares and convertible bonds of the club owner OL Group, and a substantial part of the money will be used to reduce debt so as to cut the corresponding financing costs and enable the group to refinance its debt, the statement said.
IDG will get two to three seats on OL Group's board and has promised to hold the group's shares for at least two years.
Both parties will establish a joint venture in China, promoting the club's presence and bringing its advanced youth training system to the country. IDG will hold a 55 percent stake in the venture, with OL Group taking the remainder, the statement showed.
The deal marks the fourth investment made into a European soccer club by Chinese investors within 10 days. The other three all happened on August 5, which saw Chinese investment group Yunyi Guokai (Shanghai) Sports Development acquire English premiership club West Bromwich Albion, Shenzhen-listed ORG Packaging Co take a 59.95 percent stake in French soccer club AJ Auxerre for 7 million euros, and a group of Chinese investors led by Sino-Europe Sports Investment Management Changxing buy 99.93 percent of Italian soccer club AC Milan for 740 million euros.
With the IDG deal included, Chinese investors have poured money into at least 20 overseas soccer clubs since 2014, with controlling stakes in 16 of them, showed data from Shanghai-based M&A information provider Morning Whistle Group.
The Chinese government has also showed strong support toward the soccer industry by rolling out support measures.
In April, the Chinese Football Association published a development plan for Chinese soccer, which aims to make the country a world soccer superpower by 2050.
Other targets also include getting 50 million Chinese to play soccer as well as building 20,000 soccer training centers and 70,000 pitches by 2020.
