Alternative investment firms are flexing their muscle in the world’s most popular sport. We look at how they are doing it.
When AC Milan host Atletico de Madrid in the Champions League on Tuesday evening, it will be a clash between Italy’s most successful team in Europe’s elite soccer competition and last year’s Spanish title winner.
For the financial world, it’s also a matchup between a hedge fund based in New York and a credit fund headquartered in Los Angeles. Elliott Management Corp. took control of AC Milan in 2018 after Chinese owner Li Yonghong defaulted on debt obligations. Funds managed by Ares Management Corporation acquired a 34% stake in LaLiga champion Atletico in June.
They are two of the alternative investment firms awash with cash that have been gradually gaining a foothold in the world’s most popular sport. After billionaire soccer fans, petrodollars from the Middle East and a spate of Chinese purchases over the past two decades, private equity, credit vehicles and hedge funds now represent the latest wave of investors. The most recent example is Miami-based 777 Partners, which announced on Sept. 23 it would purchase Italian club Genoa.
Read more/Source: Bloomberg
