Billionaires: Bernard Arnault set to buy Paris FC in partnership with Red Bull

In our round-up of the world’s ultra-wealthy, Gautam Adani’s flagship company has raised $500 million through a share sale and social media platform X is cleared to resume services in Brazil after Elon Musk agrees to judge’s demands

Bernard Arnault, LVMH chairman and chief executive, is the world’s fourth-richest person with an estimated net worth of $190 billion. AFP

Bernard Arnault’s family is nearing the purchase of a majority stake in second-tier football club Paris FC, investing alongside Red Bull, as the billionaire clan diversifies into sports, Bloomberg reported, citing sources.

Under the terms discussed, the Arnault family will initially take a stake of about 55 per cent through its holding company Agache, before buying out club chairman Pierre Ferracci’s 30 per cent holding in 2027, the sources said.

Red Bull will acquire a stake of about 15 per cent, they added.

Mr Arnault is the world’s fourth-richest person, with an estimated net worth of $190 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Paris FC, founded in 1972, is currently top of France’s Ligue 2, a step below the highest league. The club is less known than Paris Saint-Germain, the French capital’s main football team, whose international profile soared under the ownership of Qatar and with star players like Neymar and Kylian Mbappé.

The move to invest was a family decision involving Mr Arnault and his five children, who all work at LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, the luxury group he controls, a person familiar with the transaction’s rationale said.

French sports newspaper L’Equipe first reported the news on October 9. A representative for the Arnault family declined to comment.

Paris FC is known to have a large training academy that scouts for emerging football talent in the wider Paris region.

The future owners are not looking to challenge PSG immediately, but plan to have the team qualify for the top French league and eventually seek to take part in the European Champions League, according to L’Equipe.

The club will benefit from a budget in the range of €100 million ($109 million) to €200 million over several years, the French daily reported.

The news comes amid a recent foray by LVMH into sports sponsorships. In the first week of October, the group signed a 10-year deal with Formula One, worth potentially $1 billion, replacing Rolex. LVMH was also a major sponsor of the Olympic and Paralympic Games held in Paris over the summer.

Several French football clubs, big and small, have attracted takeover interest from investors in the past few years. Another Ligue 2 team located north of Paris, Red Star, is in talks to be acquired by private equity investor Steve Pagliuca, Bloomberg has reported.

Red Bull announced former Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp will become its global head of football in January. Red Bull owns a number of teams, including Leipzig, Salzburg and the New York Red Bulls. It also has a stake in English Championship team Leeds United.

With this transaction, Mr Arnault would join another prominent luxury family, the Pinaults, who own the football club Stade Rennais through their Artemis family vehicle. The Pinaults are the controlling shareholders of Gucci parent company Kering.

Gautam Adani

Indian billionaire Gautam Adani’s flagship company has raised about $500 million through a share sale to institutions, marking a return to equity fund-raising after a withering short-seller report in 2023.

Adani Enterprises offered about 14.2 million shares to large investors at an indicative price of 2,962 rupees ($35.23) apiece, according to terms of the deal seen by Bloomberg News.

The company plans to use the proceeds to fund capital expenditures at its subsidiaries, including energy projects and improvements at airport facilities. The funds may also be used for payments on borrowings for an airport subsidiary and general corporate purposes.

The Indian businessman has a net worth of $100 billion and is currently ranked the 16th richest person in the world, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

The sale marks a milestone for the media-to-mining conglomerate that was rocked by US short-seller Hindenburg Research’s allegations of widespread corporate fraud in January 2023.

The placement follows Adani Energy Solutions’ $1 billion offer in August to institutional investors.

The Hindenburg report had sparked a more than $150 billion rout in Adani Group stocks, forcing Adani Enterprises to scrap a share sale in February last year. The Indian conglomerate has repeatedly denied the short-seller’s allegations.

Some Adani companies have since recouped the losses and the group has resumed its expansion spree this year after India’s Supreme Court said in January that no fresh probes were needed on Hindenburg’s allegations.

Elon Musk

Brazil’s Supreme Court authorised the return of X after Elon Musk complied with its demands, including taking down some user accounts and appointing a legal representative for the platform in the country.

The company has met “all the requirements necessary for the immediate return of activities” in Brazil, Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes wrote in an order issued on October 8. “I decree the end of the suspension.”

The authorisation brings an end to a months-long feud between the billionaire owner and Mr de Moraes that culminated with the judge blocking the social network formerly known as Twitter at the end of August after Mr Musk flouted Brazilian regulations.

It amounts to a significant capitulation from the world’s richest man, who has used his clash with Mr de Moraes as a free-speech campaign against the South American nation’s efforts to police online content.

Mr Musk shut down X’s office in Brazil to protest against orders to remove certain profiles that allegedly posed a danger to its democracy. The top court banned the platform days later for not obeying local laws that require it to have a local representative, blocking the platform that had more than 22 million users in the country.

In the weeks since, Mr de Moraes has slapped other Musk companies, including satellite-internet provider Starlink, with fines and threatened additional penalties for not complying with court orders.

But Mr Musk, who bought the platform in 2022 for $44 billion, surprised critics and admirers alike in late September by giving in to the demands. After he spent months publicly railing against Mr de Moraes, X hired lawyers to represent the company in Brazil.

The about-face followed threats of a 5 million reais ($903,000) daily fine on X if it skirted the ban, after a software update allowed it to temporarily evade restrictions. The company paid 10.3 million reais for having become accessible after the ban order.

Earlier in September, Brazil withdrew 18.35 million reais from local bank accounts of X and Starlink to pay for fines imposed by the Supreme Court.

For months, Mr Musk tweeted out insults and accusations that the judge was attempting to censor conservative voices.

Mr de Moraes says the court’s efforts are needed to limit online hate speech and falsehoods that pose real dangers to Brazil’s democratic institutions.

While Mr Musk engaged in a personal campaign against Brazilian regulations, his social network has previously heeded demands from other governments, such as Turkey and India, to censor certain posts.

The bulk of the accounts that Mr de Moraes ordered X to take down belong to supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro, who used the platform to question the right-wing leader’s election loss in 2022.

Baseless claims of hacking and vote stealing that swirled in the wake of the vote fuelled the rage of protesters that rioted in Brasilia on the false belief that President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva had lost the election.

Mr Musk has vocally backed Mr Bolsonaro and worked with his government to bring his Starlink service to Brazil.