Business1 min read

Liverpool owner FSG holds talks over buying majority stake in Cadillac F1 team

By · Via The Guardian Business · Published by Everything Blog

In short

Fenway Sports Group is evaluating the potential acquisition using proceeds from selling a 38% stake in Liverpool to a consortium featuring Jeff Bezos and Eduardo Saverin. That summer transaction valued the football club at £5.5bn and provided substantial liquidity for new high-growth ventures. Meanwhile, current co-owner Mark Walter has been offloading assets, with his stake in the racing outfit estimated at roughly £2.24bn. On the track, the new motorsport outfit is enduring a difficult inaugural campaign, sitting bottom of the standings with zero points.

Key points

  • FSG is targeting Formula One to benefit from surging television rights values and broad c…: FSG is targeting Formula One to benefit from surging television rights values and broad commercial growth across America.
  • Regulatory inquiries by the Department of Justice and SEC are prompting Mark Walter to of…: Regulatory inquiries by the Department of Justice and SEC are prompting Mark Walter to offload several major sporting assets.
  • Cash reserves from a multi-billion-pound Liverpool transaction are funding FSG's ongoing…: Cash reserves from a multi-billion-pound Liverpool transaction are funding FSG's ongoing aggressive expansion into global sports franchises.

Sources checked by our analysis pipeline: 1

Liverpool’s owner, Fenway Sports Group, has held talks about buying a majority stake in the Cadillac Formula One team for more than £2bn as Mark Walter continues to sell off his sporting assets amid allegations of insurance fraud.

Cadillac entered F1 this year as a joint venture between General Motors and Walter’s TWG Global, which sold its controlling interest in the NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers and a 13% stake in Chelsea this summer, and is also looking to sell Los Angeles Sparks, the WNBA team.

Walter is under investigation by the US Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission, over alleged fraud involving the management of funds at his insurance companies Delaware Life, Clear Spring, and EquiTrust. TWG has said “there has been no fraud”.

The 66-year-old Walter is also the controlling owner of Major League Baseball’s Los Angeles Dodgers and insists they will not be sold.

TWG has denied that a sale of Cadillac is imminent, but the Guardian has learned it has had talks with a number of interested parties including FSG, whose sporting investments also…

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