Manchester City Owner Sells $500 Million Stake to U.S. Investor

LONDON — The owner of the English soccer team Manchester City, which has become a powerhouse in the sport on the strength of huge investment from Abu Dhabi’s royal family, has agreed to sell a stake of just over 10 percent to the American investment group Silver Lake Partners for $500 million.

Silver Lake has bought into City Football Group, an organization that controls seven soccer clubs on five continents. The group’s biggest asset by far is Manchester City, the reigning Premier League champion, but its holdings also include a team in Major League Soccer, New York City F.C., and clubs in Australia, Japan and Uruguay.

The stake sold to Silver Lake values City Football Group at $4.8 billion, according to a statement confirming the deal that was disclosed by The Financial Times late Tuesday. That makes the group one of the most valuable franchises in professional sports, in part because most other organizations are based on ownership of a single team.

According to data published by Forbes magazine this year, the N.F.L.’s Dallas Cowboys were the most valuable sports enterprise, at $5 billion, with the Yankees second at $4.6 billion and the Spanish soccer team Real Madrid third at $4.24 billion.

Source: The New York Times

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