A&O Shearman has taken a lead role for private equity giant Apollo on its acquisition of Spanish football club Atlético Madrid, in a deal reportedly valued at more than €2bn.
The transatlantic firm is advising Apollo Sports Capital (ASC), a new $5bn investment vehicle launched by Apollo in September. The acquisition of the club – one of the closest competitors to Spanish giants Real Madrid and Barcelona – marks the fund’s first major investment in football.
The A&O Shearman Madrid team advising ASC is led by global litigation and investigations co-head and Spain co-managing partner Antonio Vázquez-Guillén, alongside M&A partners Bosco de Checa, Inigo del Val and London partner Paul Dunbar. Tax and antitrust partners Ishtar Sancho and Antonio Martínez also advised.
Other firms involved in the deal include Spanish firm ECIJA, which is advising Atlético Madrid’s CEO and president Miguel Ángel Gil and Enrique Cerezo, who along with Quantum Pacific Group and Ares Management Funds are the club’s major shareholders.
ECIJA’s team is led by the firm’s vice president Pablo Jiménez de Parga and corporate partner Magdalena Bertram.
Ares is being advised by Proskauer and Spain’s Pérez-Llorca, with Quantum receiving advice from Spanish firm Uría Menéndez.
Uría’s team is led by Madrid corporate and M&A partner Pablo González-Espejo García. Corporate partners Alfredo Lafita and Javier Carvajal led Pérez-Llorca‘s team.
The vast majority of Apollo’s recent mandates have been dominated by firms such as Paul Weiss and Latham & Watkins. In September, the US private equity group committed €3.2bn to invest in one of four German companies that operate the country’s transmission grids, a deal on which Latham and Paul Weiss acted for Apollo.
However, A&O Shearman has handled a number of mandates for the PE house in recent years. This summer it took a debt finance role for Apollo-managed funds in relation to Spanish homebuilder Neinor Homes‘ £1bn takeover bid for Aedas Homes, while last year a Luxembourg team acted for Apollo in its acquisition of UK parcel delivery company Evri.
As part of the deal, Gil and Cerezo will continue in their roles as chief executive officer and president, and will remain shareholders alongside both Ares and Quantum.
The deal is subject to regulatory approval, and is expected to complete in the first quarter of 2026.
