Investor Windhorst buys 37.5% stake in Hertha Berlin

BERLIN (Reuters) - German investor Lars Windhorst has bought a 37.5% stake in Bundesliga soccer club Hertha Berlin through his affiliated company Tennor for 125 million euros (112 million pounds), the investment firm announced on Thursday.





Windhorst, who rose to fame in the 1990s as a teenage computer prodigy, has the option to increase his stake to 49.9% in the team which finished in mid-table in 2018-19.

Tennor said it would increase investment in players for the team, enhance its digital strategy and market the team better globally.

Hertha, who play in the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, won the German league title twice in the early 1930s but have never had such success since the Bundesliga was formed in 1963. Their best Bundesliga season was when they finished as runners-up in 1974-75.

The investment comes seven months after the private equity firm KKR divested its 36% stake in the team.

In the 1990s, Germany's "teen tycoon" Windhorst was lauded as a symbol of a new pioneering spirit by Chancellor Helmut Kohl. But several of his companies folded when the tech bubble popped and his investments have seen a mixed performance.

H2O, one of French bank Natixis' asset management businesses, has come over scrutiny over its links to Windhorst and Tennor..









(Reporting by Arno Schuetze, Anneli Palmen and Alexander Huebner; Writing by Tom Sims; Editing by Riham Alkousaa/Keith Weir)


Share
2 min read

Published

Source: Reuters

Tags

Share this with family and friends


Get SBS News daily and direct to your Inbox

Sign up now for the latest news from Australia and around the world direct to your inbox.

By subscribing, you agree to SBS’s terms of service and privacy policy including receiving email updates from SBS.

Download our apps
SBS News
SBS Audio
SBS On Demand

Listen to our podcasts
An overview of the day's top stories from SBS News
Interviews and feature reports from SBS News
Your daily ten minute finance and business news wrap with SBS Finance Editor Ricardo Gonçalves.
A daily five minute news wrap for English learners and people with disability
Get the latest with our News podcasts on your favourite podcast apps.

Watch on SBS
SBS World News

SBS World News

Take a global view with Australia's most comprehensive world news service
Watch the latest news videos from Australia and across the world