Knokke-Heist, 02.07.2021
Club Brugge, two-time consecutive national champions, today announced the strengthening of its ownership structure as part of a long-term vision for sustainable national success and international growth.
Current and future majority shareholder and chairman Bart Verhaeghe and CEO Vincent Mannaert join forces with Jan Boone and Peter Vanhecke in Grizzly Sports NV. In doing so, they continue the successful Flemish entrepreneurship that has been running since 2012 and subscribe to a long-term plan to create value for Club Brugge, its fans and its commercial partners.
On top of anchoring the founding leadership team, Club also announces an important international step with the addition of a new shareholder, Orkila Capital. Orkila Capital is an investment fund with more than 15 years of experience in sports, media, entertainment and B2C markets in Europe and the US. Orkila will help Club Brugge further grow in digitalization, intellectual property and content development as well as direct-to-consumer business strategies.
Orkila Capital is providing a €20 million capital injection to strengthen Club both athletically and in terms of brand experience. In addition, the investment group is acquiring shares from existing shareholders for a total value of 30 million euros. As a result, Grizzly Sports NV will continue to hold 71.89% of Club Brugge shares and Orkila Capital will acquire 23.26% of the shares.
With this transaction, Orkila Capital adds Club Brugge to their portfolio of leading global brands including IRONMAN (the world's largest organizer of mass sports events), Superstruct Entertainment (owner of music festivals such as Sziget, Wacken, Zwarte Cross and many others), Recognition Media (owner of The Webby Awards), Oatly (the world leader in oat milk and other plant-based products) and many others.
Chairman Bart Verhaeghe: "I am very proud to announce today a very clear, stable and bright future for Club Brugge. I am convinced that our experience in international soccer, combined with Orkila's extensive expertise with their extensive portfolio, form a stable basis to consolidate our growth in a rapidly changing soccer and business world."
Jesse Du Bey, Managing Partner of Orkila Capital: "We are honored to become a minority shareholder in Club Brugge, which we believe is one of the top brands in the European sports world. We invest in brands that have a tremendous emotional connection with their fans, employees and customers, based on a passion for their own mission, high integrity and strong innovation. We believe Club Brugge fits this description perfectly. We look forward to continuing to build the Club Brugge success story together with Bart, Vincent, their immediate partners and management team in the coming years."