Fenway Sports Group, the current owners of Liverpool Football Club, are engaged in discussions with a consortium headed by Amit Bhatia regarding the sale of a minority stake in the English Premier League club. According to reports, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has been approached to participate in the investment syndicate.
Bhatia is a 46-year-old British Indian entrepreneur with an investment banking background who manages AyBe Capital, a diversified investment firm with interests in technology, media, property, retail, and healthcare sectors. He is married to Vanisha Mittal Bhatia, daughter of Indian steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal, who has an estimated net worth of £23.2bn. Bhatia previously served as vice-chairman of Queens Park Rangers from 2007 and spent five years as the club’s chairman between 2018 and 2023, stepping down earlier this week. Through his investment firm, he also holds stakes in TGL, a golf competition featuring Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods, and Switch Hitter, a cricket media brand founded by Kevin Pietersen.
Bezos, the world’s third-richest person with an estimated fortune of $245bn (£184bn), founded Amazon in 1994 and also owns aerospace company Blue Origin and The Washington Post through his venture capital firm Nash Holdings. While he is a noted American football enthusiast who has previously explored acquisitions of NFL teams, he does not currently hold significant stakes in any sports enterprises.
The exact stake size under consideration remains unconfirmed, though reports suggest it could reach as high as 30 per cent. Liverpool was most recently valued at £4.7bn by Forbes, making it the fourth most valuable club globally. FSG acquired Liverpool for £300m in October 2010 and have since assembled a trophy collection including all major available honors. The organization indicated openness to new investment in 2022, subsequently completing a sale of a small stake to Dynasty Equity in 2023. While no timeframe has been established, the transaction is in early stages and could require months to finalize.
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