Idan Ofer has taken a stake in iconic Spanish professional cycling team Movistar to reinforce his growing portfolio of sports investments.
Ofer’s Quantum Pacific Management has bought a 43% stake in Abarca Sports, owner of Movistar Team, with his Eastern Pacific Shipping becoming one of the team’s sponsors.
Movistar and its predecessor teams make up the longest-running squad in the professional peloton. Members have included cycling greats such as Tour de France winners Miguel Indurain and Pedro Delgado, and former world champion Alejandro Valverde.
Eastern Pacific has sponsored a small cycling team in Singapore in recent years. Ofer also holds a 33% stake in Spanish football club Atletico Madrid and a majority stake in Portuguese team Famalicao.
Cyril Ducau, CEO of Eastern Pacific, said: “As a global group, sport has become a powerful unifier for our diverse workforce and a vital tool for supporting both our internal and external communities.
“By sponsoring the Movistar Team, we are not only deepening our commitment to well-being and performance, but also forging a meaningful connection between the maritime world and elite sport.
“This partnership will contribute to the growth of the sport and create a platform for sharing best practices, reflecting the shared pursuit of excellence that defines both high-performance sport and the maritime business, while strengthening our commitment to the global community.”
Ofer was TradeWinds 2024 Person of the Year, reflecting a surge in investment in new vessels and social programmes.
Eastern Pacific operates 201 ships totalling 19.4m dwt and has a further 105 of 11m dwt on order.
Movistar’s reputation has faded since Valverde’s retirement in 2022, and the team became a focus of ridicule for how they appeared in the Netflix fly-on-the-wall series The Least Expected Day.
Sources in the pro cycling community told TradeWinds that Abarca Sports’ owners had reportedly been trying to find a Saudi Arabian backer.
In recent years, Middle East countries have invested heavily in pro cycling, with top teams now backed by interests in Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.
Abarca founders Eusebio Unzue and Francisco Fernandez Maestre retain ownership of the rest of the company. Quantum Pacific sports analyst Harry Odling has been appointed to the Abarca board.
Unzue, who is also general manager of Movistar, said: “I am very pleased that such an important international group like Quantum has decided to invest in cycling. Their entry into the capital of Abarca Sports strengthens us as a team and places us in a more solid position to face the future.”
Alongside its men’s team, which is in its 46th season, Movistar has a team in the rapidly growing women’s WorldTour.
As a pioneer in the shipping industry, Ofer and his companies have championed seafarer well-being and environmental innovation.
The company said it created “a natural synergy between its corporate ethos and the values inherent in the world of cycling”, making this partnership with Movistar a natural extension of its values.
Eastern Pacific’s biennial charity fundraiser engages its 6,000-strong global workforce and the wider maritime community in walking, running and cycling.
In just 20 days, participants logged 574,644 km last year and $1.5m for Mercy Ships, which operates the world’s largest civilian hospital ships, delivering free medical care and capacity-building programmes to some of the most underserved regions around the world.(Copyright)
