Fenway Sports Group is approaching a deal to sell a significant minority stake in Liverpool Football Club to a high-profile investment consortium.
The consortium is led by Amit Bhatia, son-in-law of steel billionaire Lakshmi Mittal and a former Queens Park Rangers shareholder, and also features Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin.
A deal could be announced this week, according to Sky News journalist Mark Kleinman, marking a landmark moment for one of England’s most decorated football clubs.
Fenway Sports Group purchased Liverpool for £300m in 2010, but the club is now estimated to be worth over £4.5bn as Premier League valuations have surged dramatically in recent years.
The Mittal family’s existing sporting interests include the Rajasthan Royals franchise in the Indian Premier League, giving the consortium significant experience in managing high-profile sports properties.
FSG had previously explored building a multi-club empire along the lines of Manchester United’s Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Manchester City’s City Football Group, but abandoned those plans earlier this year.
The owners have confirmed interest from Bhatia, stating: “An investment consortium led, managed, and represented by Amit Bhatia has expressed interest in making a strategic minority investment in Liverpool Football Club.”
Not everyone is convinced of Bezos’s personal enthusiasm for the deal, with former Liverpool chief Peter Moore telling the Liverpool Echo: “Sure, someone sends an email to Jeff Bezos and says: ‘Would you be interested in doing this consortium?’ That doesn’t mean Bezos [will accept].”
Moore added: “Jeff has never shown any interest and even if he did, if he put in one percent of his net worth that he is going to throw in here and he can bring his wife, Lauren Sanchez, to Anfield, where she can come to Anfield and the cameras will be on her and she can have a right great time.”
FSG’s existing investor base already includes RedBird Capital Partners, NBA star LeBron James, and Maverick Carter, reflecting the club’s growing appeal to American sports and entertainment money.
US sports investment firm Dynasty Equity also previously paid up to $200m for a stake in the club that equated to less than four percent of the total valuation.
The deal comes at a turbulent moment for FSG’s football operations, with the group’s chief of football Michael Edwards having quit the organisation earlier this month.