“OL Groupe’s Journey on the Stock Market: A Look Back at More Than 15 Years of Listing”

While this Monday, May 8 closes a major chapter in the history of Olympique Lyonnaisor even more broadly French football, with the departure of Jean-Michel Aulasclub presidency, Sports takes you back more than fifteen years, on the day of the introduction of OL (OL Groupe), on the stock market. This happened on February 8, 2007, in the room of the basket of the CCI of Lyon.

OL Groupe was floated on the stock exchange on February 8, 2007

At the time, the ambition was immense. Sportingly, Olympique Lyonnais crushes France with the ball, with five titles to its credit in Ligue 1 and a sixth, then a seventh to come, at the end of the 2007 and 2008 seasons. secret hope of winning the Champions League and establishing Les Gones among the cream of the best European teams, both sportingly and financially.

More than fifteen years of listing on Euronext and a turnover increased by 14%

The result will be more mixed, according to our observations, between the end of the 2007 season and the last assessment, as of June 30, 2022, of OL’s turnover, excluding operations on the transfer market,
increased “only” by 14.5%, from 140.6 million to 160.5 million euros. This is almost as much (+10%) as the evolution of turnover over the year preceding the IPO and the end of the first balance sheet, in 2007.

In 2016, TV rights stimulated turnover

The 2015 financial year was the worst and the only one with less than €100 million. It was also between 2015 and 2016 that it increased the most strongly (+66.15%), in particular supported by a sharp increase in television rights (+81.4%), thanks to a new four-year period (2016-2020) of audiovisual rights, at the time won by Canal+, for an annual amount of 748.5 million euros. The 2019 season was the best and the only one with more than 200 million euros in turnover, before the Covid, then the sporting results (absence of the club in European cups), weighed down this success.

John Textor wants to remove the club from the stock markets

The stock market period will soon be part of the history of Olympique Lyonnais since the will is made, on the side of John Textor, the majority shareholder of the club and the brand new chairman and managing director, to leave it soon.