The German Bundesliga’s 50+1 rule, which stipulates that each club needs to own more than 50% of their shares, is rather well known. Though there are unfortunate exceptions to the rule, Bayern Munich is not
one of them. The Bundesliga champions currently hold 75% of their total shares, with the other 25% split between Adidas, Audi and Allianz. Bayern most recently sold some of their shares to partly finance the building of the club’s current stadium, the Allianz Arena. But Bayern still have room to sell off more of the shares and, according to British newspaper Financial Times, were close to doing so this year:
Bayern Munich held talks this year with EQT over selling a minority stake to the [Swedish] private equity firm. Negotiations fell apart when Bayern’s chief financial officer Michael Diederich, EQT’s contact at the club, left in the summer to become co-head of Deutsche Bank’s corporate banking business, according to three people familiar with the matter. The Bayern Munich members’ association owns 75% of the club, with the remaining shares divided equally between three German companies: Adidas, Audi and Allianz.
The club’s constitution stipulates that members must hold a 70% stake in the subsidiary that runs the operations of its football teams, leaving a 5% stake which they could potentially sell to an external partner. It is unclear which of EQT’s funds would have invested in Bayern if the talks had led to a deal. EQT, Bayern and Diederich all declined to comment.
This follows the DFL’s recent failed attempts to sell a stake of their media income to foreign private investors, something that broke down in large parts thanks to fan backlash over foreign investment. Bayern had previously sold their stakes to investors in Germany, but, if this report is to be believed, attempted to take the leap to foreign investment.
EQT, meanwhile, are one of the biggest private equity firms in the world. So far, their only venture into sport is a $25 million investment into a six-a-side tournament called the Baller League, which was founded in Germany in 2023. The exact amount of money Bayern would have received or the size of the stake they would have sold remains unknown. Nor is it known if the deal will be revived any time soon.
