Week after week, Jean-Michel Aulas and John Textor are reassuring in their communication. The sale of Olympique Lyonnais, which was hardly in doubt on June 21, when the two businessmen split from a joint press conference at Parc OL, is however still not finalized, four months later. In a statement published this Monday morning, OL Groupe announces a new postponement, with as “new date for carrying out the operation on November 17”.
The American investor therefore has less than four weeks to conclude, with his Eagle Football group, “the intermediate stages for the signing of the final financing documentation in debt and equity”. “To date, substantial progress has been made on all the steps that are necessary to complete the operation”, assures OL Groupe in the same press release.
But after having already been postponed on September 30, the sale of OL is surrounded by growing doubt. A “right to terminate” the contract is thus expressed at the end of this press release. The sellers (Pathé, IDG Capital and Holnest, the holding company of Jean-Michel Aulas) could thus decide to end the discussions on November 17, and to claim compensation from a John Textor now under pressure.