Montpellier HSC is about to live a historic turning point. In the columns of L'Équipe, President Laurent Nicollin confirmed being in exclusive negotiations with a group of investors to open the capital. The Hérault club is about to live a historic turning point. A few days after the revelations of the English investment fund GSS, Hérault President Laurent Nicollin has come out of silence in the columns of the daily sports newspaper. If he confirms that an exclusive process is well underway under the aegis of the Case Cassiopea investment bank, the director calms the game on an imminent officialization: "We are in the procedure. We had three potential investors, we retained one with the bank Case Cassiopea about a month and a half ago. Now, we are in the clauses, the details. It's going well. My coach would like it to go faster. But it won't be signed tomorrow morning. A sale of society, majoritarian or minoritarian, is between six months and a year, the time to prepare the files, all that. We're moving forward, but nothing's been validated. We're no longer discussing with just one buyer." A solid project with still secret contours If the names of former player Daniel Karbassiyoon or German international midfielder Ilkay Gündogan have circulated, the MHSC boss evokes a larger consortium and is intransigent on financial guarantees, while hoping for a quick resolution to prepare the best for the upcoming season: "It's a group of investors. The bankers have investigated: it's solid, viable. I think there's not just the names that have come out in the past few days (Daniel Karbassiyoon, Ilkay Gündogan). They have demands, we also: the bankers and lawyers are crossing to validate these demands on both sides. And at that moment, we can sign the documents that will engage, with clauses, the passage to the DNCG, etc. That's why I'm telling you that if it happens as it should happen, it won't be (official) before the end of June - beginning of July, at best. And if it doesn't happen, we'll continue. And if it has to last a bit longer, it will last a bit longer... But to prepare the season, if there's an entry to MHSC, the sooner they'll be there, the better it will be to work. It doesn't prevent us from working, us, to prepare the season, waiting for the outcome." This assumed prudence responds to a fierce will to protect the institution: "It's not a question of money but of transmitting the club in the best conditions, if it had to be transmitted, to people who will be able to maintain it at a certain level. That's why we took an investment bank, there were three or four groups with whom we exchanged. We won't let go of both hands like that: we want the club to be in good hands. We don't master everything, but if we do something, we want to do the best possible." The end of the Nicollin era? Historically and intimately linked to the Nicollin family, the Hérault club is about to cut the umbilical cord. Laurent Nicollin uses a touching family metaphor to explain his feeling: "It's like we're letting go of a child who left our home, but who has become an adult. We're proud of what he's become, but we know it's time for him to leave."