April 13 – French Ligue 1 Olympique Lyonnais have outlined plans for their players to take up to 25% of their salaries in OL Groupe shares rather than as cash.
The share scheme is available to both men’s and women’s teams and will cover from February 2021 to at least June 2021 (possibly going into September 2021), and is dependent on when the club can re-open its stadium and return all its commercial activities to normal.
The scheme could also be used to cover the payment of player bonuses awarded to both men’s and women’s teams. With six games of the Ligue 1 season left the men’s team are4 in fourth position, five points off league leaders Lille and 12 points ahead of fifth placed Lens.
The women’s team are second in their league, four points behind PSG with a game in hand. They are also Champions League contention.
“Taking into account the uncertainty of sport and the discussions underway, the size of the programme could vary between a minimum of €0.7 million and a theoretical maximum of €6.5 million if the men’s and women’s professional teams achieve all of th optimum on-the-pitch results and the related bonuses are paid in shares,” said an OL statement.
The club said that already a number of players had commited to taking a porton of their salary as shares and that they were in discussion with others and hope that more will do so to « enable OL Groupe to improve its cash position and strengthen its shareholders’ equity ».
Shares issued to players who take up the offer will be equal to the average of the share prices of the 10 trading days preceding the date on which the price is set. The price cannot be set lower than the share prices of the three trading days before the price is set, less 5%.
The club will increase its capital to issue the new shares in several tranches and subscribers (players and staff) will have four days to take up the offer. Players opting to take shares in lieu of cash must commit to a minimum of 5% of their salary.
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