Japan's ACA buys Belgian football club

ACA Football Partners (ACAFP) will assume control of KMSK Deinze from Denijs Van De Weghe, who has served as chairman of the club since 2011. In addition to supporting the continued development of KMSK Deinze – there are plans to build a new stadium this year – the new owner will drive commercial expansion in Asia.

“It took us two years from the start of the concept to finally announce the beginning of the great football journey,” said Hiroyuki Ono, a Singapore-based partner at ACA Investments and CEO of ACAFP, in a statement.

“We are looking forward to taking part in evolving the football business by connecting the European football scene and global markets primarily Asia. We also expect that our business will generate new opportunities for Japanese and Asian players.”

KMSK Deinze was founded in 1926 in Deinze, a city in East Flanders with a population of 45,000. It emerged from the amateur leagues in 2020, winning promotion to the 1B Pro League. The club, which plays in the 7,515-capacity Burgemeester Van de Wiele Stadion, is currently in fourth place.

ACA Investments has more than USD 1.4bn under management, of which approximately USD 130m has been deployed in Southeast Asia, with a primary focus on Vietnam. It teamed up with Daiwa Securities to launch a JPY 5bn (USD 45m) Asia ex-Japan fund in 2019.

ACAFP regards the KMSK Deinze deal as the first step towards a multi-club ownership model focused on Europe. It wants to adopt “a scientific approach and technologies to the on-the-pitch management,” develop a global membership program supported by original digital content, and pursue transparency and good governance in club management.

Private equity investment in professional sports – typically targeting franchises or marketing rights holders – is gaining traction globally. Asia is beginning to follow suit, with CVC Capital Partners and RedBird Capital Partners both taking stakes in Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket franchises and Silver Lake agreeing to buy 12.5% of the commercial arm of New Zealand Rugby.

Football has tended to follow more of a cross-border theme. In 2015-2016, prior to the introduction of restrictions on outbound dealmaking, Chinese investors – not necessarily institutional players – committed more than $1 billion across eight transactions.

These included CMC Holdings and Trustar Capital backing Abu Dhabi-based City Football Group, which owns Manchester City, and IDG Capital taking a stake in OL Groupe, the holding company of France’s Olympique Lyonnais. More recently, LionRock Capital took a minority interest in Italy’s Inter Milan, which is controlled by Chinese electronics retailer Suning.

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• Topics
• Southeast Asia
• North Asia
• Europe
• Consumer
• Buyouts
• Singapore
• Japan
• ACA Investments