On the 13th December, IDG Capital and the Olympique Lyonnais(OL) Group hosted a press conference to announce that IDG Capitalhave successfully invested in the OL Group and hold 20% of their shares. The French Ambassador Maurice Gourdault-Montagne, the Technical Director of the China Football Association Li Feiyu, the President of the OL Group Jean Michel-Aulas, the Co-Founderof IDG CapitalXiong Xiaoge, the Investment Partner of IDG Capital and the President of Xingzhi Sports (literally translated) Li Jianguang attended this press conference.
The investment of IDG into Olympique Lyonnais was officially announced at the press conference. In the meantime, Xingzhi Sports, which has been acquired by IDG Capital, will cooperate with the OL group to build up a joint venture company, Beijing Lyonnais Xingzhi Sports Culture Limited (literally translated) in China. This company will be involved in the business of promoting football schools, sports consultancy, sports sponsorship and sports tourism with its main business focusing on the development of football schools.
The youth training of Olympique Lyonnais Group is ranked Number 1 in France and this cooperative youth training in China was formed as a joint venture, which is the first and only case in this country currently. Unlike the usual brand licensing model of Chinese companies’ investments in overseas sports clubs, the joint venture is an effort to explore extensive and in-depth cooperation in the Chinese market.
Proofread by Sean O Diobhilin