King Street, owner is looking for a buyer for the Girondins de Bordeaux

The president of the Girondins de Bordeaux Frédéric Longuépée in Le Haillan, November 8, 2018. -

• King Street, the investment fund that owns the Girondins de Bordeaux, is increasingly seeking to sell the club.

• After Bruno Fievet, another Bordeaux businessman, Pascal Rigo, is interested in the club according to

  Sud Ouest

  .

  But since this summer, the discussions have stopped.

  Other potential buyers are no longer interested today.

• The price asked by American leaders (around 130 million euros) cools all the candidates for the takeover.

The scene dates back to mid-November.

That Monday, Frédéric Longuépée, CEO of the Girondins de Bordeaux, picked up his phone to call an acquaintance very established in the world of French football.

He has a clear message to send: the club is (unofficially) for sale and he is looking for potential buyers.

Since the end of September, King Street, the American investment fund that owns the Navy and White, no longer simply listens to takeover proposals as it did last spring, its own leaders themselves call back those concerned to try to find a door very quickly. Release.

Between the club's financial difficulties, the Covid-19 epidemic and questions about Mediapro, the situation seems urgent enough to ask Frédéric Longuépée, himself, to test the waters for his part.

Moreover, even if the economic context is not foreign, the club has for a few weeks put certain projects on stand-by (negotiations on the stadium for example) or downright in the trash (financialization of the partnership with amateur clubs of the region).

The management also announced a social plan after having recruited nearly 80 people since the acquisition of the Girondins in 2018. All this makes say to a keen observer of the club that "King Street is trying to restore everything, as correctly and quickly as possible , to sell a club that has become unsaleable ”.

Can the summer discussions resume?

A major problem today, potential buyers no longer throng in front of the Château du Haillan, for the same reasons that pushed King Street to sell.

Last May, they were a few to seek to join the American investment fund.

Bruno Fievet, supporter of the Girondins and business manager based in Switzerland, has publicly presented his project for a year.

According to information from

he even officially made an offer of 70 million euros to buy the club ten days ago with his associates from the Middle East.

An offer rejected by King Street.

The Americans are asking for nearly 130 million euros and still do not want to sell to the first comer.

Bruno Fievet (right), one of the candidates for the buyout of the Girondins.

- ROMAIN PERROCHEAU / AFP

Above all, they consider other more interesting files.

Two of them had their ears this summer.

As revealed by

one is worn by a Bordeaux businessman, Pascal Rigo, associated with an American billionaire.

A former club ambassador, like Bruno Fievet, and supporter of the Navy and White since childhood, he made a fortune in particular by developing a bakery chain in California, which he sold in 2012. “There were several meetings, the deal was to return to the capital [40% according to the regional daily].

King Street filled the deficit [28 million euros at the end of last season] and Pascal Rigo initially brought 30 million euros for the sportsman and the summer transfer window.

But finally the Americans have closed the door and there have been no negotiations since the end of August, ”explains an intermediary.

The two parties still remained in contact since the Bordelais has a development project of Matmut Atlantique that he could carry out in collaboration with the American investment fund before perhaps one day buying the club from him.

At the moment T, everyone is waiting for the evolution of the Mediapro affair.

Girondins de Bordeaux: In financial difficulty, the club announces a voluntary departure plan https://t.co/liXNM18SmD via @ 20minutesBord pic.twitter.com/LD7PaV48dQ

- 20minutesbordeaux (@ 20minutesbord) November 3, 2020

Still, the file put at the top of the pile by King Street in recent months has ended up slipping into his hands.

The owners of the Girondins held even more extensive discussions with another foreign investor this summer.

He could have entered the project of Pascal Rigo, but especially wanted to buy the entire club according to information from

It could be the American company Peak6 as revealed by

Discussions were unsuccessful with this potential buyer, and at the time of recalling him to relaunch him at the end of September, King Street was disqualified.

This investor is now interested in another French club.

Finally, according to L'Equipe, the group Harris Blitzer Sports and Entertainment, owner of the Philadelphia 76ers (NBA) and New Jersey Devils (NHL), was also positioned this summer.

"We can always believe in Santa Claus"

The list of candidates for a takeover is therefore no longer as long today and it is shortening as the weeks of health crisis progress.

While waiting for a sale, a person close to the file notes all the same that there is “an improvement in the management of the club… Well, you will tell me, Longuépée partly takes over the project brochure presented to him by Pascal Rigo!

Whether on the new sports hierarchy with Gasset [coach] and Roche [sports director], all that is missing is Stéphane Martin as president (smiles), or whether it is on the social level.

Is this a sign?

Are we already preparing the sequel?

".

Stéphane Martin was already president of the Girondins in 2017-2018.

- LOIC VENANCE / AFP

For now, the problem seems to be the same despite the desire to sell for King Street: it's the price.

“Already, he asks for an exorbitant price (around 130 million euros), regrets one of the potential buyers, but the worst thing is that with such a high price in all, it is 250 million euros that 'you have to invest from the start to restructure the club and buy a few players, it's huge!

But he does not despair and keeps smiling: "We are approaching the holidays so we can still believe in Santa Claus".

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