The sale of US sport investor Frank McCourt’s 50% stake in the Longines Global Champions Tour (GCT) has finally gone ahead, after German buyer Lars Windhorst tried to step aside because of the coronavirus crisis.
The GCT’s Jan Tops announced an “amicable” out-of-court settlement on May 14th. It has emerged that McCourt was suing Windhorst in the Dutch courts for reneging on a deal that seemed all but signed in January.
McCourt bought his stake in 2014. Like McCourt, a global investor in soccer, Windhorst expressed interest in LGCT in 2018. Ever since then, a deal was negotiated with Windhorst’s company Tennor and announced at the start of 2020. But with the cancellation of shows due to Covid-19, Windhorst decided to drop out. Only the opening CSI5* of the planned LGCT 2020 series took place in Doha, Qatar, in March.
Dutch media company RTL reported last week that McCourt took legal action to ensure the agreement was honoured. According to RTL, the 50% stake was valued at 169 million euros. Windhorst was not required to acquire the 50% stake from McCourt under the signed protocol; however, the German tycoon fined 30 million euros. It is believed that as a result of the deal with Tops, Windhorst will not be required to pay the fine.
Jan Tops, founder and president of the LGCT and co-founder of the Global Champions League, said in a statement: “I am happy to confirm agreement has been reached for our new partnership.
“Our business is in good shape and strong as it has always been, pandemic notwithstanding, and all team owners and other key stakeholders are fully committed. We will continue to build on our innovation roadmap and the global success of our circuit. We will go forwards not backwards.”
On the pandemic, Tops added, “We all recognise this will be a period of constant adjustment and adaptation and we will decide very soon if it is possible to safely organise some events this year taking into account the rules of national governments or whether we will start fresh next year. We are looking forward to a positive outcome.”
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