Not just football, the Chinese Sports Wanda points to the control of the Tour, Giro and Vuelta
Wanda Sports (formerly Infront Sports & Media), the giant of the management of TV rights not only of football but of a number of other sports, including winter disciplines, as well as active in the production of content, strong tip about cycling.
As it reported by Milano Finanza, the group controlled by businessman Wang Jianlin is considering the possibility of buying the brand and the organization of the three major stage races in the world cycling scene : the Tour de France (now in hand Amaury family, which also serves L'Equipe, France Football and Vélo Magazine), the Tour of Italy and Tour of Spain (instead organized by RCS Sport, the company's publishing group Via Rizzoli , which also manages the Milan- turin, the Tour of Lombardy , the Milan-San Remo, Tirreno-Adriatico and the Tour of Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
The first step, writes the financial weekly, has been probing the availability of Amaury. China would start a courtship decided the family of French publishers, however, always jealous of their creatures.
In addition to the tour company organizational Aso, it manages the Paris-Nice, the legendary Paris-Roubaix, the Critérium du Dauphiné, the Tour of Qatar and the Oman. In addition to another historic sporting event of transalpine matrix, or the Dakar Rally, and the Paris Marathon. A rich and global business that if it ended in the portfolio in Dalian Wanda could be expanded and exported even in the Far East.
But such a project, of course, focused on the Tour de France, he would be a worthy global reach if it was completed with the entry into the portfolio of Sports Wanda also the Giro and the Vuelta. Three aces in short, that would allow Dalian Wanda to fill and have the reins and the fortunes of cycling matters.
The project to aggregate the three major tours of Europe was a ball of the old management of RCS , which already ten years ago approached the Amaury, but received a polite refusal as firm (it is said that the family patriarch French first he died, he asked his heirs never to sell the tour).
Now in via Rizzoli , things are different and the primary objective of management, from the president Maurizio Costa and by CEO Laura Cioli , is cutting the cuttable. For this the bite RCS Sport (45 million in revenues in 2014) in addition to the Chinese threw themselves Americans Img, historical rivals of Infront, but above all, according to the reconstruction of the market, even the television group Discovery, the third largest in Italy with almost 7% share and the owner of the pan-European platform Eurosport.
Obvious that RCS will not be easy at this time deprive a business thriving and growing. But it could also be envisaged strategic alliance with one of the international players interested in the business management of sporting events. Because Cioli currently seems to have few cards to play to present by 18 December the business plan that must point slaughter of debt (500 million) to avoid the capital increase.
Option that could be overcome with the exploitation of Unidad Editorial. In addition to cut structural costs by intervening corporate area, where still today include 472 employees of a total of 4,007, the same as in 2007 (476) but when total headcount was 6,480 people and the turnover was double the current. A big burden (negative EBITDA of 23 million on revenues of 53.8 million) that so far the company has not dented.
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