Liverpool owners Fenway Sports Group are currently in advanced negotiations to sell a minority stake in the club to British-Indian businessman and Queens Park Rangers co-owner Amit Bhatia in a deal that would see the club valued at a record £4.5bn after news of the pending deal broke today in the Financial Times.
Almost immediately after that news broke, QPR announced that Bhatia had transferred his stake in the club to majority owner Ruben Gnanalingam.
That move to divest his stake in QPR in this
context would only be taken to allow Bhatia to take on an ownership share in Liverpool Football Club while avoiding running afoul of multi-club ownership regulations in England, and strongly suggests that a final deal is likely now very close.
Bhatia has been co-owner of QPR over the past 18 years and has run or been significantly involved in investment group AyBe Capital Advisers, British construction materials supplier The Breedon Group, and real estate private equity firm Summix Capital. None of these are words—particularly the ones about private equity—are likely to fill the average Liverpool fan with warm and fuzzy feelings.
Still, Bhatia’s arrival as a minority owner would seem to signal that FSG intend to continue as majority owners for the foreseeable future, and it would also avoid the club being sold to a front for a nation-state and going down the sportswashing road of clubs like Newcastle United and Manchester City.
Bhatia is the son-in-law of billionaire Lakshmi Mittal, the CEO of ArcelorMittal, the world’s second-largest steel company, and it is believed any deal for Bhatia to buy a stake in Liverpool would come with significant backing from Mittal and his company.
“An investment consortium led, managed, and represented by Amit Bhatia has expressed interest in making a strategic minority investment in Liverpool Football Club,” was the sum of Liverpool Football Club’s very brief statement confirming the news. Liverpool have previously sold minority stakes to Dynasty Equity and RedBird Capital.
