Chelsea investors Ares buys stake in Mbappe SailGP team
Chelsea, McLaren Racing and Miami Dolphins investor Ares Management has joined Kylian Mbappe in buying into the French SailGP team.
The US firm’s minority stake will see the sailing team become entirely privately owned, and follows recent celebrity investments in the series from the likes of Anne Hathaway (Italy) and Ryan Reynolds (Australia).
Ares Management is a major sports investor, having pumped $500m into Premier League club Chelsea in 2023 while also owning stakes in the holding company of Atletico Madrid, baseball side San Diego Padres and David Beckham’s Inter Miami, as well as the McLaren Formula 1 team McLaren and NFL franchise Miami Dolphins.
The private equity firm was also involved in Crystal Palace shareholder John Textor’s takeover of French football club Lyon, via his Eagle Football vehicle.
Ares Sports, Media and Entertainment co-lead Jim Miller said that SailGP had achieved “impressive growth across its teams, viewership and engagement”, adding that it was “thrilled to enter the league and join the France SailGP Team’s existing owners group”.
“With the team’s expanding ecosystem of dedicated athletes, sponsors and fans, alongside Ares’ experience investing in premier global sports teams, we are eager to lend our capabilities as the team continues to build on its momentum.”
SailGP investment expansion
The involvement of Ares in SailGP is a sign of growing private equity interest in the on-water sport, which has managed to attract brands such as Emirates, Red Bull, Rolex and – in Team France’s case – Accor.
The sailing league was set up by Oracle founder Larry Ellison and Sir Russell Coutts in 2019 and currently has 11 teams from Great Britain, Spain and Brazil to Canada, New Zealand and the United States.
Recent reported valuations for teams have ranged from $45m (Italy) up to $125m (USA), with interest in a revived Caribbean and Bermudian team reported by some team figures.
“The investment in our French team by an organisation with a stellar portfolio of first-rate sports properties underlines the strength of SailGP’s global league model and reinforces the commercial potential of our teams,” managing director Andrew Thompson said.