February 17 – France’s OL Groupe, owners of Ligue 1 Olympique Lyon, is reporting a first half return to profitability for the 2021-22 season with revenues up 7% from the same period in 2020-21 to €75 million.
Including player trading, revenue reached €116.1 million with before tax earnings of €14.7 million, a €24.1 million turnaround from the same period in 2020-21.
Taking into account taxes, debt and leases, the club reduced losses from €49.9 million in the first half of 2020-21 to €28 million in 2021-22.
The most significant revenue stream increase was ticketing, which with a return of fans to stadia in France, saw gate money rise €12.3 million to €14.1 million.
Media revenue was down €13.7 million compared to the previous year due to OL participating in the Europa League rather than the higher earning Champions League where OL had the benefit of a long run to the semi-finals in the 2019-20 season but which saw the revenue taken in the following financial year due to the calendar shift of the final.
OL has consistently been a good trader in the player market and although player trading revenue was down €12.7 million in what the club said was a slow transfer market, it did point out that the value of its men’s team was still high at €324 million, “implying potential capital gains on player assets estimated at nearly €230 million”.
The club achieved €53.3 million in player trading revenue for the period with the highest transfer being €15.9 million sale of Bertrand Traore to Aston Villa.
Looking forward the group said that a new naming rights deal with LDLC will soon come on tap as will the new arena. A deal has been done with Live Nation to manage the venue and bring entertainment acts.
With the club showing recovery from the covid pandemic it said that it felt it was on track for its medium-term predictions of €4044-420 million in revenue (including payer trading) by the end of the 2024/25 season. That would see earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of about €100 million.
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