Bundesliga: Klaus-Michael Kühne lends €17m to Hamburg SV before becoming shareholder

The German billionaire Klaus-Michael Kühne has lent €17m to HSV Fussball AG, the company that owns the professional license of the football section of Hamburg SV (Bundesliga), the club announced on 04/08/2014. Kühne has long been a supporter of the club and owns the transportation company Kuehne + Nagel International AG. He had already injected €8m into the club on 31/08/2012, which helped Hamburg recruit Dutch midfielder Rafael van der Vaart.

The loan of €17m follows the introduction of the HSVPlus reform that was voted in by 86.9% of the 9,702 members of Hamburg SV at their general assembly on 25/05/2014. This reform detached the professional football section of Hamburg SV from the 33 other sports sections of the club in order to facilitate the entry of investors into the organisation, which had been in trouble both financially and on the pitch. The plan was that 25% of the shares would soon be sold to a strategic partner, on the model of Allianz, Audi and Adidas, who have between the three of them 25% ownership of FC Bayern Munich AG.

Klaus-Michael Kühne, 77, has been seen for…