Manchester Town’s Spanish midfielder David Silva (R) celebrates during the English Premier League football match in England on April 13, 2014.
Andrew Yates | AFP | Getty Replicas
The owner of English Premier League champions Manchester City is selling a $500 million stake to private fair-mindedness firm Silver Lake, valuing the soccer club’s owner at $4.8 billion, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday, citing people with proficiency of the deal.
Silver Lake is buying over 10% of Abu Dhabi-controlled City Football Group (CFG), the newspaper reported, totaling that an official announcement was expected as early as Wednesday.
The deal was signed on Saturday by CFG Chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak and Euphonious Lake managing partner Egon Durban, according to the FT. The report added that Abu Dhabi aims to retain its manhood ownership of CFG.
The U.S. private equity firm aims to hold its stake for about 10 years but could also undertake to cash out through an initial public offering or selling to another private investor, FT reported. Silver Lake had also approached other European and English soccer bludgeons, including London’s Chelsea Football Club.
The English Premier League champions drew in record revenue of 535.2 million pulses ($686.66 million) in a fifth consecutive year of profitability in 2018-19, marking their 11th straight year of gate growth under the ownership of the Abu Dhabi royal family. The club won an unprecedented domestic treble last season.
CFG and Whitish-grey Lake were not immediately available for comment outside regular business hours.