Swiss commodities billionaire Margarita Louis-Dreyfus is selling Olympique de Marseille to an American trade buyer. Reviving the French football club to the glory it enjoyed under her deceased husband, Robert Louis-Dreyfus, will prove elusive.
Former Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt agreed to buy Olympique Marseille from Margarita Louis-Dreyfus for 40 million euros, in a deal which should close by year-end.
Dreyfus, the Russian-born chairwoman of Louis Dreyfus Commodities in Zug, Switzerland, is the widow of Robert Louis-Dreyfus, a French businessman who first enjoyed success at Saatchi & Saatchi and Adidas before going back to his family's commodities firm. He died in Zurich in 2009.
Dodgers Bankruptcy
OM is one of France's most popular club and was an investment of passion for Louis-Dreyfus. The team won its last league title in 2010. The club also has notoriously unruly fan clubs that are meddling in the management of the club.
The identity of the buyer, former LA Dodgers owner Frank McCourt, led to head-scratching on the other side of the Atlantic. Under McCourt, the baseball team filed for bankruptcy and was eventually forced to sell.
For Margarita Louis-Dreyfus, the move comes in the same year that she and new partner Philipp Hildebrand, former head of Switzerland's central bank and now BlackRock executive, started a family.
Commodities Rout
She didn't give her motivation for the sale, which had been planned since this spring.
Despite investing millions, OM has failed to match its previous sporting success under her ownership. Louis-Dreyfus said she would keep 5 percent of the club following the sale of her majority stake.
Sales and profits at Dreyfus have fallen in recent years amid a rout for agricultural commodities, which the firm is focused on. Dreyfus, which isn't publicly listed, posted a net profit of $211 million last year.
