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Manchester City are now part of one of the world\u2019s most valuable football companies after a $501million investment from American firm Silver Lake.<\/p>\nManchester City are now part of one of the world\u2019s most valuable football companies after a $501million investment from American firm Silver Lake.<\/p>\n
The City Football Group, owner of the Premier League champions, announced on Wednesday the technology firm had acquired a 10 per cent stake in its business, taking its total value to $4.8billion.<\/p>\n
That takes the CFG value above that of Real Madrid ($4.24bn), Barcelona ($3.99bn) and Manchester United ($3.8bn) in figures published by Forbes in May. Across all sports, only the Dallas Cowboys had a greater value at that point, of $5bn, with the New York Yankees worth $4.6bn.<\/p>\n
The CFG value, however, represents the worth of all the group\u2019s assets, rather than just City. The holding company has stakes in six other clubs worldwide in New York City, Melbourne City, Yokohama F Marinos, Girona, Atletico Torque (Uruguay) and Sichuan Jiuniu (China).<\/p>\n
The Silver Lake investment \u2013 which comes with no shares having been sold \u2013 will be spread across the whole group to continue the growth which began with Sheikh Mansour\u2019s takeover of City in 2008.<\/p>\n
Chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak told Sky Sports: \u201cWe\u2019ve been focusing over the last 10 years with a clear business plan, a clear investment strategy, a clear global strategy in terms of how we built our group from one team, in Manchester City, to a group of clubs around the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are leaders today in the football business globally. All these businesses are sustainable, are profitable.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think Manchester City is now five years in profitability so I think this sustainable model we\u2019ve been working on has proven to be a success and Silver Lake sees that.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe investment, this is $500million that Silver Lake is putting into the group, and we\u2019re not taking any money out. This investment money stays in the group and stays as part of our growth strategy for the future.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will continue down the route that we\u2019ve started 10 years ago and as we look at the next chapter of this evolution which is the next 10 years, this investment will help fuel our growth.\u201d<\/p>\n
Earlier this month City announced record revenues of $689million for the past financial year, coming in a fifth successive year of profitability.<\/p>\n
The expansion of the group is likely to see the establishment or acquisition of a club in India in the near future.<\/p>\n
Al Mubarak said: \u201cWhen we look at growth we look at three major markets \u2013 the United States, China and India.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve invested in New York and that\u2019s our US presence in MLS, we\u2019ve invested in China and certainly India is the next big market that we\u2019d like to have a position in.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope very soon we\u2019ll be able to make our move into that market and continue our growth trajectory in the right markets globally.\u201d<\/p>\n
Silver Lake, which also has a stake in the Ultimate Fighting Championship, describes itself as \u201cthe global leader in technology investing\u201d with combined assets under management and committed capital of $43bn.<\/p>\n
With bases in Silicon Valley, New York, London and Hong Kong, it has a \u201csingular mission of investing in the world\u2019s leading technology, technology-enabled and related growth businesses\u201d.<\/p>\n
Its managing director, Egon Durban, will represent the company on the CFG board.<\/p>\n
Durban said: \u201cWe are excited to invest in CFG, which is redefining football globally and in doing so has successfully built an impressive global platform of marquee football clubs across five continents.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are excited to partner with the board and CFG\u2019s world-class management team to help drive the next phase of CFG\u2019s growth in the fast-growing premium sports and entertainment content market.\u201d<\/p>\n