Silver Lake invests $500m in City Football Group

The all-equity investment was part of a capital increase that valued the company at $4.8bn. No existing shareholders sold equity and Silver Lake now owns in excess of 10% of the company.

Abu Dhabi United Group remains the majority shareholder with a stake of around 77%. A consortium of Chinese institutional investors led by media company China Media Capital Holdings (CMC) owns around 12% of the company.

Silver Lake is currently investing from Silver Lake Partners V, which closed on $15bn in 2017. Managing partner Egon Durban will join the company's board in a newly created ninth board seat.

The proceeds from the investment will be used by City Football Group to pursue international business growth opportunities and develop further technology and infrastructure assets.

Previous funding
In 2015, CMC and China-based alternative investment manager CITIC Capital acquired a 13% stake valuing City Football Group at $3bn.

The investors acquired their stake for $400m, with new shares issued in addition to the ones held by investment company Abu Dhabi United, which was the sole shareholder prior to the investment.

Company
City Football Group owns football clubs and related businesses, including Manchester City FC, New York City FC, Melbourne City FC, Yokohama F Marinos in Japan, Club Atletico Torque in Uruguay, Girona FC in Spain and Sichuan Jiuniu FC in China. Founded in 2013 and based in London, the company has more than 2,000 employees in 12 locations globally.

For the year ending 30 June 2018, the company's revenues amounted to £585m, with an operating loss of £35m.

People
Silver Lake – Egon Durban (managing partner, managing director).
City Football Group – Khaldoon Al Mubarak (chairman).

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