US private equity giant Silver Lake has taken a £389m bite out of Manchester City Football Club’s owners.
The cash influx means Abu Dhabi’s City Football Group is now worth $4.8bn, the firms said today, breaking the valuation record for a sports organisation.
Tech investor Silver Lake now owns over a 10 per cent stake in the firm, just behind a 12 per cent stake held by a group of Chinese institutional investors led by media giant CMC.
Sheikh Mansour remains the majority shareholder in the club with 77 per cent.
The money will be used to fund “international business growth opportunities” and develop the technology and infrastructure of the group – which also includes New York City, Melbourne City, Girona, Yokohama F Marinos, Atletico Torque and Sichuan Jiuniu.
City Group chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak said in a statement: “Silver Lake is a global leader in technology investing, and we are delighted by both the validation that their investment in CFG represents, and the opportunities for further growth that their partnership brings.
“We and Silver Lake share the strong belief in the opportunities being presented by the convergence of entertainment, sports and technology and the resulting ability for CFG to generate long-term growth and new revenue streams globally.”
Egon Durban, Silver Lake managing director, said: “We are excited to invest in CFG, which is redefining football globally and in doing so has successfully built an impressive global platform of marquee football clubs across five continents.
“We greatly respect CFG’s stewardship of more than a century of football tradition and the strong global fanbases of its clubs.
“We are excited to partner with the board and CFG’s world-class management team to help drive the next phase of CFG’s growth in the fast-growing premium sports and entertainment content market.”
