Abreu advises owners of Olympiacos and Nottingham Forest on purchase of 80% stake in Rio Ave FC SAD

Abreu Advogados is the firm responsible for providing legal advice to RAH Sports Investments Limited on its acquisition of 80% of the shares of Rio Ave Futebol SAD.

Fernando Veiga Gomes, partner in the areas of sports, corporate, commercial and mergers and acquisitions, and José Carlos Vasconcelos, partner since 2018, are responsible for coordinating the operations of the new sports company of the club, which was founded in 1939.

“Ricardo Henriques (partner), Sofia Silva e Sousa (contracting partner), Maria de Deus Botelho and Patricia Saraiva de Aguilar (advisors), Inês Cortez Elói and José Maria Alves Pereira (senior partners), Francisco Côrte-Real (partner) Abreu and Rui Gonçalves (associate) also participated in this high-level sports M&A exercise,” the law firm said in a statement sent to Economic Daily (JE), adding that throughout the process, Abreu’s lawyers monitored “developments in the sports sector”. due diligence and negotiations related to acquisitions and sports regulatory issues,” the office added in the same note.

In mid-June, Rio Ave formally established the SAD statutes, which were approved by the partners at the shareholders’ meeting on November 19 last year, and sold 80% of the share capital to Evangelos Marinakis. The Greek investor, who owns Olympiacos and Nottingham Forest, earned 20.5 million euros for the Caravelle club.

“The transformation of Rio Ave Futebol Clube – Futebol SDUQ (Sociedade Desportiva Unipessoal por Quotas) into Rio Ave Futebol Clube – Futebol SAD has officially begun with the process of investor RAH SPORTS acquiring 80% of the capital of the new company, and the “investment company Limited has also been completed”, the club announced on June 15, adding that the Cyprus-based company is “very excited about this project and intends to take Rio Ave FC SAD to other sports and organizational levels”.

The name of Rio Ave SAD president and executive director was chosen as Boaz Jacov Toshav, an Israeli businessman with ties to Hapoel Tel Aviv. Diogo de Araújo Pinto Ribeiro, former financial director (CFO) of Vitória Sport Clube, will become member and executive director.

The board, which will serve until 2027, is also composed of Alexandrina Cruz, who has been in the management structure of Rio Ave for almost 20 years and is the first female president of a La Liga football club. Henrique Maia, the club’s professional football assistant, is the name chosen by the members for the direction of SAD.

Not only did Toshav come to Vila do Conde from Israel, but Karem Zoabi, who was signed from Hapoel Jerusalem for 600,000 euros in early July, also came to Vila do Conde.

RAH Sports Investments Limited, based in Cyprus, was founded in January this year and is managed by Miltiades Marinakis, the son of Evangelos Marinakis, who bought Olympiacos for £50 million (€57 million) in 2010 and Nottingham Forest in 2017.

This year, Abreu Advogados publicly stated that it Atairos acquires stake in V Sports SCS, Keep The company acquired Aston Villa Football Club Limited in 2019 and holds 29% of the share capital of Vitória Sport Clube – Futebol, SAD (Guimarães) and recently participated in Victoria Football Club welcomes new investor (Setúbal).