Man City owner CFG buys majority stake in India’s Mumbai FC
City Football Group (CFG), the Abu Dhabi company which owns Manchester City, has signed a deal to purchase a 65 per cent stake in India’s Mumbai City FC.
The acquisition means that CFG will own stakes in eight football clubs, including majority stakes in New York City FC and Melbourne City.
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The remaining 35 per cent of the Indian Super League outfit is owned by Bollywood star Ranbir Kapoor.
Chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak said: “We believe that this investment will deliver transformative benefits to Mumbai City FC, to City Football Group and to Indian football as a whole.”
The deal, which was first reported by the BBC, comes a day after US private equity firm Silver Lake poured $500m (£389m) into CFG.
The cash influx meant that the company is now the most valuable sports organisation in the world, with an estimated worth of $4.8bn.
Silver Lake now owns over 10 per cent of the firm, just behind the 12 per cent stake held by a group of Chinese institutions including media behemoth CMC.
In a statement on Silver Lake’s investment, Al Mubarak said: “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.”
Egon Durban, managing partner of Silver Lake, said: “We are excited to invest in City Football Group, which is redefining football globally and in doing so has successfully built an impressive global platform of marquee football clubs across five continents.”
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CFG also owns stakes in Japan’s Yokohama F. Marinos, Club Atletico Torque in Uruguay, Girona in Spain and Sichuan Jiuniu in China.
Earlier this month Manchester City revealed earlier this month that it has booked record revenue of £535.2m in a fifth year in a row of profitability.