Latham & Watkins and Sidley Austin have scored the lead roles as Guggenheim CEO Mark Walter and former Guggenheim president Todd Boehly agree to sell their collective stake in Chelsea Football Club, with Macfarlanes and Winston Taylor also advising.
The pair acquired the Premier League club in 2022 for £4.25bn as part of a consortium with Clearlake Capital, which will absorb the financier duo’s shares.
Sidley advised Clearlake on the deal, with a team led by a trio of M&A and private equity partners: global M&A and PE group co-lead Mehdi Khodadad and Mark Castiglia in Century City, and Adam Runcorn in London.
Latham & Watkins advised on the sell side, with a team led by London managing partner Ed Barnett and M&A partner Hector Sants. Also on the deal were tax partner Helen Lethaby, finance partner Hayden Teo, and funds partner Clare Scott, all in London, as well as tax department co-chair Alan Kimball in New York.
Both Latham and Sidley had lead roles on the initial transaction after long-term owner Roman Abramovic was mandated to sell the club by the UK government, with the former advising the consortium and the latter advising Clearlake.
Walter received additional advice from Winston Taylor corporate partners Nick Usher and Rebecca Jack. Usher is co-chair of the firm’s London office.
Macfarlanes advised Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss, a member of the consortium, who has increased his holdings in the club from 12% to 13.5%, according to the FT, which also reported that Boehly and Walter will receive £950m for their 25% stake.
Macfarlanes head of corporate Howard Corney led the deal. Funds partner Pete Chapman, tax partner Jeremey Moncrieff and commercial partner Malcolm Walton were also involved. Transaction, expected to close at the end of the year, will see Boehly step down as chairman and Clearlake Capital take full control of the club.
The deal comes a month after a consortium that includes Jeff Bezos closed a deal for a minority stake in Liverpool FC. Latham acted as principal legal counsel to the consortium, with Barnett and Sants again leading the team.
The back to back transactions highlight the strategic importance of sports assets to private capital firms, which has grown over the last decade and seen law firms rush to build practices to serve this corner of the market.
In July, Paul Hastings launched a global sports practice led by ex-Slaughters sports M&A partner Mark Zerdin. The firm announced its new venture with the hire of Brandon Etheridge, GC of NFL team the Baltimore Ravens.
‘The value of sports as an asset class today is in the billions,’ Zerdin told LB at the time. ‘A much wider range of legal services are required today than ever before, whether this is acquisitions, disputes, investments from funds or regulatory issues. The law firms required to serve these clients need greater depth across multiple practice areas.’
In January, Latham hired a pair of partners from legacy Hogan Lovells, including Matthew Eisler, now head of sports capital.
The sports boom is also fuelling hiring in disputes, with Linklaters bringing over a pair of sports disputes partners from Paul Weiss in July.
Photo by Virginia Marinova on Unsplash
Sports is the new private capital frontier – why top firms are upping their game
