By David Owen
February 10 – Another high profile Chinese investment in international sport has been unveiled, with the announcement on Tuesday that Wang Jianlin’s Dalian Wanda Group has reached a deal to acquire Infront Sports & Media from the private equity firm Bridgepoint for €1.05 billion.
The acquisition of the well-known Swiss-based sports marketing company – which is headed by FIFA President Sepp Blatter’s nephew Philippe – comes less than a month after Wanda bought a 20% stake in Atlético Madrid, the overachieving Spanish football club
Critically, Infront’s senior management team, including Philippe Blatter who is President and chief executive, is to remain in place, with a long-term strategic plan said to have been agreed until 2020. The company now claims to have partnerships with 160 rights holders in 25 sports. In 2014, it generated revenues of more than €800 million.
Wang Jianlin, Wanda Group’s chairman who was rated the richest man in China in 2011, said the acquisition would “significantly increase the future impact of the Wanda Group in the culture and entertainment industry and will also drive the development of Chinese sports industry and its interest around the globe”.
With China seen as a possible future host of the FIFA World Cup – and Beijing thought almost certain to be awarded the right to stage the 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games, in a decision due later this year – it was interesting that Wang also commented on how Infront was “best-positioned to actively support China in its bidding efforts for major sports events”.
By acquiring Infront, Wang concluded, Wanda would also “be in a position to increase its influence in the global sports industry and help raise the level of competition in Chinese sports”.
Blatter said Infront would “continue to grow our business across the board, both internationally as well as in China”. Wanda was “fully committed to actively contribute to Infront’s ambitious growth plans and shares our long-term vision as well as our corporate values. Overall, we are convinced that the new and strengthened ownership structure will help to further enhance our service offering to benefit our valued partners and clients.”
For Bridgepoint, Xavier Robert, a Paris-based partner, described Infront as “a scarce asset in its sector that has delivered a strong performance on the back of geographical expansion and a growing sports contract base to become a well-diversified premium sports marketing company. We wish it continued success with a new important shareholder.”
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