Rugby: Michelin becomes 100% shareholder in ASM Clermont Auvergne

The Michelin Group is now 100 per cent shareholder in rugby club ASM Clermont Auvergne, a development it hopes will secure the club’s financial stability following several difficult years both on and off the field. Both parties intend Michelin’s sole ownership to be a temporary situation, with other partners – especially those from the local area – welcome to invest capital in ASM Clermont Auvergne at a later date.

Announcing this “new page” in the club’s history, Michelin speaks of a dynamic that first and foremost illustrated by athletic excellence but one that will also require an in-depth transformation of the club’s economic model and its development around the ASM brand, its stadium, supporters, and partners.

To guide this metamorphosis, on 22 May the supervisory board of ASM Clermont Auvergne created the position of general director. It has appointed Benoît Vaz, liaison officer to the chairman since January 2023, to the role. In this capacity, Vaz will be responsible for assisting Jean-Claude Pats, club chairman since 1 June 2023, and will take charge of the management and operational development of all ASM Clermont Auvergne activities.

Source of pride

For the Michelin group, the decision to become ASM Clermont Auvergne’s shareholder represents a twofold commitment: To enhance the local area and to support the athletic and social functions that the club has engaged in since Marcel Michelin, son of joint company founder André Michelin, founded the sports association in 1911. The company considers ASM Clermont Auvergne to have been a “driver of the prestige of Clermont-Ferrand and the Auvergne region and a source of pride for its inhabitants” for more than a century.

For the ASM Clermont Auvergne, the unfaltering support of the Michelin group is “essential in this pivotal period” in light of recent “fundamental changes” related to the club’s management and organization. “In this new context, the ASM Clermont Auvergne must rise to both athletic and economic challenges,” comments Michelin, adding that the club is “now focused on making every possible effort to rise to the challenge and to strike the balance necessary to function well.”