Chelsea Football Club has revealed that a consortium led by Todd Boehly has reached an agreement with Roman Abramovich to buy the club.
The Chelsea Football Club takeover story appears to be ended after more than two months of searching for a suitable bidder by Raine Group, the American merchant bank in charge of the selling of the London club.
Raine Group has chosen the Todd Boehly group as the preferred bidder for the West London football club, beating out competition from the other two consortiums, according to reports earlier this week.
Former Liverpool chairman Sir Martin Broughton — backed by Lewis Hamilton and Lord Seb Coe – and Boston Celtics and Atalanta part-owner Stephen Pagliuca made the other two substantial bids.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe, Britain’s richest billionaire, has made a last-minute extravagant £4.75 billion bid, which is thought to be the biggest bid.
The Todd Boehly Consortium has teamed up with Clearlake Capital and billionaires Mark Walter and Hansjoerg Wyss to buy the West London football club for £4.25 billion, which includes £2.5 billion for the purchase price and £1.75 billion in additional investment for the club’s benefit.
Chelsea Football Club can disclose that a new ownership group led by Todd Boehly, Clearlake Capital, Mark Walter, and Hansjoerg Wyss has reached an agreement to buy the club.
“Of the overall investment, £2.5 billion will be used to buy the Club’s shares, with the revenues going into a frozen UK bank account with the goal of donating 100% to philanthropic organizations, as stated by Roman Abramovich.” The proceeds will need to be transferred from the blocked UK bank account with the permission of the UK government.
“In addition, the prospective new owners will invest an additional £1.75 billion in the Club’s benefit.”
This includes money for the Chelsea Foundation as well as investments at Stamford Bridge, the Academy, the Women’s Team, and Kingsmeadow.
“Subject to all requisite regulatory approvals, the sale is scheduled to close in late May.” At that time, more information will be supplied.”
However, they must overcome two more obstacles before they can seize command.
The Premier League and the UK government must both approve the arrangement. The league is anticipated to approve the buyout only after the owners and directors test, which is expected to take at least another 10 days.
To allow the sale to proceed, the UK government would have to provide a new license.
According to TheSUN, the takeover should be completed by the end of May, with little over three weeks left on the club’s existing operational license, which expires on May 31.
