Silver Lake pours $500m into Man City owner to break sports group valuation record
Private equity giant Silver Lake has made a $500m (£389m) investment into 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.
Read more: Mourinho’s changes spark Spurs comeback to seal last 16
The deal was first reported by the Financial Times.
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.
“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,” City Football Group chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak said in a statement.
“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.”
Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan’s Abu Dhabi United Group remains the biggest stakeholder in City Football Group with a 77 per cent piece of the pie.
Europe’s top football clubs have seen a rise in the amount of money coming from oligarchs over the last 10 years, with audience numbers growing in the Middle East, as well as in Asia and the US.
Man City revealed earlier this month that it has booked record revenue of £535.2m in a fifth year in a row of profitability.
Read more: Why Man City have never had a better chance to win the Champions League
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.
“We are excited to partner with the board and City Football Group’s world-class management team to help drive the next phase of City Football Group’s growth in the fast-growing premium sports and entertainment content market.”