The investment in Sporting Charleroi from Catalytik Group

Sporting Charleroi is a legacy football club in the Belgian first division. Since its takeover in 2012 by Mehdi Bayat and Fabien Debecq, the Club has grown tremendously, from a revenue of €6.5m to €30m per year today, while maintaining outstanding financial health. The Club is positioned in the top 7 in the Belgian league average ranking of the past 5 years. 

Together with PwC, Sporting Charleroi began a strategic exercise to review its operational and governance models. Based on that exercise, RCSC decided to open the capital structure of the Club. 

After a competitive auction process, Catalytik Sports Group (led by the US entrepreneur David Helmer) acquired a significant minority stake in Sporting Charleroi (through a direct investment and a capital raise).

How we helped

Our PwC Corporate Finance team led the discussions with the Catalytik Group on behalf of Sporting Charleroi as a sell-side advisor. 

PwC looked for the right investor for the Club, focusing on the financial terms, the culture and the added value for the Club. Through the partnership with David Helmer, Sporting Charleroi wants to continue and accelerate its strong growth trajectory of recent years and compete amongst the top Belgian clubs. It will also allow the company to acquire fresh capital that can be used for the further development of the infrastructure (youth academy and stadium) and the professionalization of the Club. 

Catalytik will act as a silent strategic partner for the Club while the current management of Sporting Charleroi remains in place.