According to a report by Chinese media Internet Plus Sports, Ant Financial and IDG Capital will jointly invest in Beijing Guoan Football Club, each taking 40% with 20% still owned by the club. The President of Ant Financial Peng Lei will take over at Beijing Guoan.
IDG Capital have invested in Olympique Lyonnais and a partner of this investment Li Jianguang has said that, in order to get the French club better adjusted to the local Chinese environment, they’ve been talking with a CSL club about a cooperation.
Ant Financial is owned by the Alibaba Group, and specializes in financial business. Currently it provides services including finance, insurance, credit investigation and consumer loans to its more than 450 million domestic customers. In April 2016, Ant Financial announced it had just completed B round financing with a valuation of 60 billion dollars.
If Ant Financial invests in Beijing Guoan, along with Guangzhou Evergrande (Alibaba owns 50% of its shares) and Jiangsu Suning (Alibaba has shares in Suning), there will be 3 CSL teams in which Alibaba has an interest.
However, there has been no official announcement yet. According to insiders, Beijing Guoan’s executives are still considering the matter, as the team color (green) might have to be changed.
Proofread by Sean O Diobhilin