M&A FOOTBALL

The approach to an investment, via the takeover of a football club, has several objectives, such as diversification of investments, and ultimately the creation of a business unit around professional sport. The investment fund wanted to implement this strategy, and had identified France as a first approach, in order to minimize their entry into sports investments. The other obvious observation was a desire to secure the "ROI" of this first investment, by looking for a football club to revitalize, establish in a large conurbation, the existence of assets (stadium, training center and training and a history).

Abington’s support

We have built an accompaniment around the fundamentals, i.e. the essential phases to accomplish a process of redemption, our know-how and our global knowledge around the sport:

• Definition of the league (here The National) and the potential targets (The professional status of the club);

• A pre-evaluation of the target and the different scenarios for financing the acquisition (financial engineering, and financing screening, ...) ;

• An accompaniment to achieve an appropriate approach of the leaders, local authorities, ... ;

• The realization of financial audits, the supervision of other items (legal, sports, marketing and commercial, ...) by selecting the appropriate experts;

• The adequate accompaniment during the "signing" and "closing" phases ;

• A co-definition of short and medium term strategies, in order to make the recovery efficient (e.g. financial plan, marketing communication strategy, definition of the sports policy, ...).