Manchester City investment "largest of its kind of all time"

The $500million (£388million) investment in Manchester City's parent company is the largest private equity-backed football club deal of all time, new data claims.

Silver Lake Management, a US-based PE group mainly investing in technology, is set to own a 10 per cent stake in City Football Group following the transaction.
In terms of all sports, financial markets data provider Refinitiv says Silver Lake's investment comes in second place, behind a deal in 2007 for sports venue management group SMG.

But in relation to football, Silver Lake's football is the largest by a private equity group.

CFG are also ranked in third place in the table, for the $400million deal that saw Chinese group CMC acquired a 13 per cent stake in 2015.
The $500million deal is significantly larger than recent deals by private equity companies to take either take control of or buy minority shares in other football clubs, including recent transactions for French sides Bordeaux and Lyon.
Meanwhile, Refinitiv points out, Silver Lake's investment is the largest sports club deal by any kind of investor since Stan Kroenke's company KSE paid $779million the remaining 32.9 per cent stake in Arsenal last year that he did not previously own.

"This would be the fourth largest UK sports club deal of all-time and the seventh largest in Europe," Refinitiv said, pointing to Milan's ill-fated $1.2billion takeover by a Chinese investment group in 2016 as the leader of investments in European sports clubs.