374 million euros – Hertha BSC can buy back the shares from investor Lars Windhorst. After three years, the much strained relationship is about to end.
Investor Lars Windhorst wants to end his cooperation with Hertha BSC after the recent scandal and offers the capital club to buy back the shares he acquired for 374 million euros. In a statement obtained by the Deutsche Presse-Agentur, Windhorst said that the current president Kay Bernstein was “recognisably not interested in a trusting and serious cooperation”. There was no basis and no perspective any more.
Bernstein had his 101st day in office as president at Hertha BSC on Wednesday. The former Ultra had surprisingly won the election after the resignation of Werner Gegenbauer. Windhorst wanted the long-time boss out of office, something the investor, who joined Hertha in 2019 with his Tennor Group, had left no doubt about. However, Windhorst dismissed as nonsense media reports that Windhorst had instigated a campaign against Gegenbauer via an Israeli agency.
“Instead of working with us to clarify the matter, President Bernstein decided to go along with the preliminary condemnations without examining the evidence,” said Windhorst, describing the actions of the new club management from his point of view. In a conversation with them, the president had named “the break with Tennor” as the goal of his activities.
Under these conditions, further cooperation for the good of Hertha BSC was out of the question, economic and sporting goals could not be achieved in this way, “and thus the essential basis of our commitment to Hertha BSC has been destroyed”. Therefore, he would end his involvement with Hertha and officially offer the club to “buy back our majority shares of 64.7 % at the purchase price at the time”.
As reported by “Der Spiegel”, Hertha’s executive committee plans to decide on Wednesday evening on a motion to expel Windhorst from the club. The club pointed out that it generally does not comment in advance on the contents of its regular meetings. In addition, the investigation of the espionage affair by a law firm would not be anticipated. In the event of an application by the executive committee, the Berlin club court would decide on Windhorst’s expulsion from the club. An expulsion would not change Tennor’s status as a shareholder.