FC Nantes signs sale deal but final approval remains

FC Nantes is closer than ever to ending the Kita family’s ownership, but the club has not yet changed hands. A sale protocol was signed on Tuesday with Phenix Sports Invest, the group led by entrepreneur and sports adviser Paulo Tavares. The agreement marks a major step after years of unsuccessful approaches, but it does not complete the transaction.

The operation is valued at about €100 million, excluding bonuses. It must now pass the DNCG’s review, while the club’s works council is also due to be consulted. Those procedures will test the financial strength of Tavares’s project and whether the prospective owners can guarantee Nantes’s continuity.

The uncertainty matters because an advanced sale can still collapse at this stage. In 2019, the Kita family ended talks with an English fund after it failed to provide sufficient bank guarantees for the DNCG. If the current process receives the necessary approvals, it will close Waldemar Kita’s tenure, which began in 2007 and included two relegations to Ligue 2.

Tavares’s plan includes French, Portuguese and Luxembourgish investors and seeks to establish a new development model for the club. For now, the agreement brings Nantes near a change in ownership, not to its official conclusion.