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On Tuesday, June 13, 2023, the ASM Clermont Auvergne held an extraordinary general meeting to approve the Compagnie Financière Michelin company entering the capital that has been primarily held up until now by ASM Omnisports.
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The Michelin group and the ASM Clermont Auvergne plan on eventually opening the club’s capital to other shareholders and especially actors of the local economy.
The Michelin group and the ASM Clermont Auvergne share the same ambition: for the professional team to regain its athletic goals as quickly as possible while improving the brand and the image of the “Yellow Army”. In that perspective, the Michelin group’s support will enable the ASM Clermont Auvergne to build a solid, lasting project in order to ensure the club’s continuity and supports its development.
Ensuring the continuity of the ASM Clermont Auvergne
The economic model of professional rugby is precarious in France and abroad, and the club’s television rights remain insufficient to truly establish its economic stability.
Over the last few years, the financial situation of the ASM Clermont Auvergne has been impacted by a series of factors (sports restructuring, the COVID crisis, lower scores, etc.) which have taken a heavy toll on the club’s finances.
Michelin’s commitment as a shareholder will enable the club to begin building on new, stable economic foundations. In the long term, Michelin does not intend on retaining the sole ownership of the ASM Clermont Auvergne. Once its sports performance and economic results are stabilized, the objective of the Michelin group and the club will be to open the capital to other partners in the area.
Supporting the club’s development
This new dynamic will be illustrated, first and foremost, by athletic excellence. It will also require an in-depth transformation of the club’s economic model, which should develop around the ASM brand, its stadium, its supporters and its partners.
To guide this metamorphosis, the supervisory board of the ASM Clermont Auvergne decided, on May 22, 2023, to create the position of General Director. Benoît Vaz, who has been liaison officer to the chairman since January 2023, is appointed to the role. He will be responsible for seconding Jean-Claude Pats, chairman of the club since June 1, 2023, by taking charge of the management and operational development of all the ASM Clermont Auvergne’s activities.
For the Michelin group, the decision to become shareholder of the ASM Clermont Auvergne represents a twofold commitment: to enhance the territory and to support the extensive athletic and extra-athletic undertaking that the club has carried since Marcel Michelin founded the sports association in 1911. Today, the ASM Clermont Auvergne greatly contributes to the territory’s sports excellence (rugby club, training center, reinforcement of partnerships with regional clubs), as well as the area’s social cohesion, namely through the actions of general interest carried out by the ASM Omnisports and the ASM Impulsion Auvergne foundation. For more than a century, the ASM Clermont Auvergne has established itself as a driver of the prestige of Clermont-Ferrand and the Auvergne region and a source of pride for its inhabitants.
For the ASM Clermont Auvergne, the unfaltering support of the Michelin group is essential in this pivotal period. Fundamental changes have recently been set in motion in the club’s management and organization. In this new context, the ASM Clermont Auvergne must rise to both athletic and economic challenges. The club is now focused on making every possible effort to rise to the challenge and to strike the balance necessary to function well. Now more than ever, the encouragement of the “Yellow Army” supporters and all the club’s partners is a determining factor in enabling ASM Clermont Auvergne to continue proudly promoting the colors of the city and region.