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Record Championship valuation for Ipswich

The Arizona state pension fund that bought Ipswich Town in 2021 has sold a large chunk of its shares in the Suffolk-based club in a deal that values them at more than £350million ($446.9m), a record for a Championship team.

The Public Safety Personnel Retirement System (PSPRS), via its investment manager ORG, paid about £30million ($40m) for 90 per cent of the then-League One club in April 2021, which was also a record price at the time for a team in England’s third tier.

PSPRS, which provides pensions to 24,000 former firefighters, police officers and prison officers in Arizona, halved its stake in the club in March 2024, when Ohio-based private equity firm Bright Path Sports Partners took a large minority stake in the club two months before they secured their second straight promotion and a return to the Premier League after a 22-year absence.

Bright Path’s £105million ($140m) investment valued Ipswich at about £250million ($333.5m) which was already a healthy return on the pension fund’s initial punt. But this summer, following Ipswich’s relegation back to the Championship, ORG told the club’s other shareholders that more of PSPRS’s shares were available.

This meant that Clara Vista Partners, another private equity firm that joined the ownership group in 2024, and the Three Lions fund that partnered with ORG in the 2021 takeover, were able to look for new investors to join their syndicates. According to a club statement on Wednesday, that process is now complete.

Portman Holdings LLC is the new majority shareholder of Gamechanger 20 Ltd, the club’s parent company. Portman is jointly owned by Clara Vista, Three Lions and ORG, so PSPRS has not completely exited the ownership group.

Bright Path did not choose to increase its stake this time but continues to own about 40 per cent of the club, with the Three Lions partners Berke Bakay and Brett Johnson also owning a small separate stake, alongside celebrity fan Ed Sheeran, who owns 1.4 per cent of his boyhood team.

Some football finance experts will raise eyebrows at the £350m valuation for a club that has spent only two of the last 25 seasons in England’s top flight. They will note that most Premier League teams are only valued at about two to two and a half times their annual turnover, while Ipswich’s valuation is more like three and a half times what they will earn this season.

But others will point to Ipswich’s growth, on and off the pitch, in recent years, the club’s strong balance sheet and simply applaud ORG for looking after PSPRS’s money so well. In fact, PSPRS could see an even greater return if Ipswich can go up in the near future, as the transfer of shares to its Portman partners includes promotion kickers.

The £350m valuation is also in line with what Wrexham’s owners have been marketing a minority stake in their club at, and it is only slightly higher than the total price 49ers Enterprises eventually paid for Leeds United following their relegation to the Championship in 2023.

 

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