OM supporters are on alert: CMA CGM, the Phocaeans’ jersey sponsor, will buy BFM TV and RMC. Rodolphe Saadé is not only an ambitious billionaire, but above all he is a businessman with great connections…
CMA CGM became the jersey sponsor of OM last summer and this is not insignificant for the people of Marseille, who have been waiting for years for the sale of the club by Frank McCourt, an American businessman who disappeared from the circulation. It must be said that CMA CGM weighs much, much more than the Bostonian. The Marseille-based company is a world leader in maritime transport, its CEO Rodolphe Saadé is a high-profile businessman.
CMA CGM is suddenly at the head of a huge audiovisual group, after buying Altice Media from Patrick Drahi. The group of BFM TV, RMC and their TV and radio versions is valued at 1.55 billion euros. It’s not much compared to the last two deals from Saadé: 4.85 billion euros to buy Bolloré Logistics, a transport company, and 2.5 billion for two terminals at the port of New York-New Jersey (he already has those at Los Angeles-Long Beach).
Saadé partner of Saudi Arabia
If OM supporters dream of this, Rodolphe Saadé should not get involved in football. He is already a busy businessman. His fortune is estimated at 9 billion euros (which makes him the eighth largest French fortune), but as a 73% shareholder of his group. The 54-year-old Franco-Lebanese, who arrived in Marseille at the age of 11 from Beirut, can turn the life of Olympique de Marseille upside down with one call. Towards Saudi Arabia…
Rodolphe Saadé recently negotiated an agreement with Saudi Arabia as part of the Gulf country’s Vision 2030 project. Tens of billions of euros will be invested. Saadé, close to President Emmanuel Macron, is a privileged partner of Saudi investors. CMA CGM is certainly not a jersey sponsor of OM (compared to 8 million euros per year) to see the owner of the club limit the expenses of the managers of the residents of the Vélodrome.
