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The parent company of Premier League champions Manchester City has announced a £389m investment from US private equity firm Silver Lake.
The deal breaks a record in global sports valuations, making holding company City Football Group (CFG) worth £3.73bn ($4.8bn).
The US private equity firm is buying around 10% of CFG’s worldwide business.
Man City is currently third in the Premier League and has qualified for the Champions League last 16.
CFG has a stake in seven football clubs across the world, including in the US, Australia, Japan, and China.
Group chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak said: “We and Silver Lake share the strong belief in the opportunities being presented by the convergence of entertainment, sports and technology and the resulting ability for CFG to generate long-term growth and new revenue streams globally.”
Silver Lake, which is best known for technology investing, said its investment would “help drive the next phase of CFG’s growth in the fast-growing premium sports and entertainment content market”.
Earlier in November, Manchester City announced it had brought in a record £535.2m last season.
It was City’s 11th successive year of revenue growth and closed the gap on local rivals Manchester United, the Premier League’s richest club.
The figure is projected to rise again next year given Man City has qualified for the knockout stages of the Champions League.
Payments from a £45m-a-year Puma kit deal will also start to take effect.
“Manchester City are being investigated by Uefa for possible breaches into financial fair play, so [Silver Lake] are obviously looking over that,” sports expert said.
Earlier this month the club’s appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) asking for Uefa’s probe to be halted, was rejected.
The club is at risk of being banned from the Champions League and will now face judgment from Uefa’s adjudicatory chamber.
