Silver Lake Increases Stake in Manchester City Owner

Silver Lake is now the second largest shareholder in Manchester City FC owner City Football Group.

The private equity firm increased its existing stake by purchasing a roughly 4.1% share from CMC Football Holdings. Filings show it was acquired between early 2020 and January 2022.

• Silver Lake, which bought its initial 10% stake for $500 million in 2019, now owns 14.54% of the company.
• CMC’s holding dropped to 8.24%.

City Football Group has full or partial stakes in 12 soccer clubs including New York City FC, Melbourne FC, and Manchester City — the sixth highest-valued soccer team in the world with a $4.25 billion valuation. Man City reported record revenue of $648.5 million for the 2020-21 season.

Silver Lake’s Stakes

Last month, Silver Lake purchased Diamond Baseball Holdings from Endeavor for $280 million. Formed last year, DBH includes 10 minor league baseball teams including affiliates of the St. Louis Cardinals, Chicago Cubs, and New York Yankees.

Last year, Silver Lake acquired a 33.3% stake in the Australian Professional Leagues for roughly $100 million, and as of this year, is set to acquire a stake in NZR CommercialCo, a division of New Zealand Rugby that houses all revenue-generating assets of the governing body.