CVC Capital Partners is exploring fresh investment opportunities for its sports portfolio—including its stake in the Six Nations rugby championship—as part of efforts to attract capital from Gulf sovereign wealth funds and other global investors.
The private equity firm has mandated Goldman Sachs, PJT Partners, and Raine Group to assess options for its collection of sports assets, which also includes interests in Spanish and French football and women’s tennis. These holdings are being consolidated under a new umbrella vehicle, provisionally named “SportsCo,” with an estimated value exceeding £10 billion.
As part of this strategic reorganization, CVC could sell minority stakes in SportsCo, with former BT Consumer head Marc Allera appointed to lead the initiative as chairman. The firm is preparing for a series of meetings in the coming months and aims to secure new capital before year-end.
CVC is positioning SportsCo for refinancing and long-term ownership, enabling it to return capital to its limited partners while retaining control beyond the traditional five-to-seven-year private equity cycle. The new structure would also centralize leadership appointments across the leagues in which CVC is invested and help streamline broadcast rights negotiations in a global media landscape increasingly shaped by tech giants like Apple and Netflix.
Despite CVC’s previous success with Formula 1—exiting with billions in profit—the firm’s more recent ventures have faced hurdles. Its €1.3 billion investment in France’s Ligue de Football Professionnel encountered both governance friction and legal scrutiny, while its bet on English rugby union underperformed amid pandemic-related revenue shocks.
The creation of SportsCo comes as private equity firms globally navigate a tougher investment climate, with higher interest rates and pressured valuations forcing innovation in capital deployment and returns generation.
CVC declined to comment on the developments.
Source: Yahoo Finance
