Kita Era Nears Its End as FC Nantes Sign Sale Agreement With Phenix Sports Invest

Kita Era Nears Its End as FC Nantes Sign Sale Agreement With Phenix Sports Invest

Waldemar Kita has signed a sale agreement handing control of FC Nantes to Phenix Sports Invest, a pool of French, Portuguese and Luxembourg investors led by entrepreneur and sporting adviser Paulo Tavares, in a deal reported at around €100 million before bonuses and up to €125 million with them included. L'Équipe and Ouest-France reported on Wednesday that the protocol, signed on Tuesday, opens exclusive negotiations and marks the last step before a definitive conclusion to the most significant ownership change at the club since 2007.

The document puts an end — pending administrative review — to nineteen years under the Franco-Polish businessman, who bought the Canaris for around €10 million in 2007. Kita's tenure delivered a Coupe de France win in 2022 and a Europa League group-stage campaign in 2022-23, but it was defined above all by instability: twenty-four coaches in nineteen years and a sporting decline that ended with relegation to Ligue 2 this summer, a drop that finally pushed the president-owner to open the door to a sale.

Who is buying Nantes

Phenix Sports Invest is presented as an offshoot of Phenix Capital, based in Luxembourg, and brings together business figures from France, Portugal and Luxembourg under Tavares, a former players' agent who had already been mentioned among potential buyers of the club. The reported valuation — roughly €100 million excluding bonuses, rising toward €125 million depending on certain performance conditions — is a striking figure for a side currently fifteenth in Ligue 2, and roughly ten times what Kita paid in 2007.

The agreement is not yet a completed sale. The proposed takeover must first be presented to FC Nantes' employee representatives and then reviewed by the DNCG, French football's financial watchdog, which will assess the financial strength of the project and the guarantees provided by the incoming investors. The precedent looms large: in 2019, a deal between the Kita family and the British fund LFE Football Group Limited collapsed after it was rejected by the DNCG over insufficient banking guarantees.

What the new owners would inherit

Whoever takes control inherits a club with real reconstruction work. Nantes owns neither its stadium, the Stade de la Beaujoire, nor its training centre, both of which will demand significant investment in the years ahead. The wider French game, hit by the collapse of domestic broadcast rights income, adds a difficult economic backdrop — and a Ligue 2 start that points to anything but an immediate return to the top flight.

For supporters who have campaigned against Kita's stewardship for years, the signature nonetheless represents the clearest signal yet that a page is turning. If the DNCG waves the project through, the FC Nantes would change hands for the first time in nearly two decades, with Tavares's consortium promising the guarantees that previous bidders could not provide.

Reported by Ines Kovač, OneLightScore football business desk, from reports by L'Équipe, Ouest-France, Eurosport and OneFootball. Cover image: Stade de la Beaujoire, Wikimedia Commons, reused under its free licence.