Everton Football Club’s billionaire owners are seeking new investors less than two years after buying the club, following a summer transfer window in which Premier League rivals drove spending to new records in an arms race for talent. The Friedkin Group, the US conglomerate that also owns Italian football club AS Roma, is working with advisers on the Everton stake sale process, according to three people familiar with the matter.
The process, which is still at an early stage, could result
in new investors buying a significant stake in the Premier League club, though
it is possible that a deal does not materialise. The Friedkin Group and Everton
declined to comment.
Any deal would follow John Henry’s Fenway Sports Group
selling more than a third of crosstown rival Liverpool Football Club to a
consortium including Amit Bhatia, the son-in-law of steel tycoon and
billionaire Lakshmi Mittal, and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos at a $7bn valuation.
The Friedkin Group paid about £330mn to take control of
Everton in late 2024 from former owner Farhad Moshiri, including deal costs and
debt. Rising valuations in sport and the cost of competing in the Premier
League mean it is increasingly common for teams to be owned by consortiums
rather than a single investor.
“It’s an arms race,” one of the people with knowledge of the
sale process told the Financial Times. “More and more firepower is coming into
the league.” This summer, Premier League clubs spent a record €4.1bn on
players, according to data website Transfermarkt, recouping €2.5bn in sales.
However, Everton
spent just shy of €103mn on players, less than the €129mn it raised through
player sales. There has been a backlash from the club’s fans over the window
where top players left and an attempted £40mn deal for US World Cup star
Folarin Balogun fell through at the eleventh hour.
Dan Friedkin, chair and chief executive of TFG, has a $13bn
fortune, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. His wealth is derived
from the group’s ownership of a vast network of Toyota car dealerships. He is
also a skilled pilot and flew a Spitfire in the Christopher Nolan film Dunkirk. In
April last year, Friedkin and his family sold equity in Roundhouse Capital
Holdings, the entity that controls Everton, to Christopher Sarofim, who chairs
investment manager Fayez Sarofim & Co.
The Merseyside club is among the most successful in English
football history, having won the league title nine times. However, the last of
those victories came in 1987. The last of its five FA Cup wins came in 1995.
The coronavirus pandemic hit Everton hard because the club incurred heavy
losses under Moshiri as it was still building and funding its new stadium.
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Everton cut ties
with sponsors connected to Uzbekistan-born Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov,
who was a longstanding business partner of Moshiri.
In 2023, Everton narrowly avoided relegation to the
second-tier Championship. Moshiri had agreed to sell the club to 777 Partners
in September 2023 but the deal collapsed in June 2024 amid the US investment
firm’s own financial turmoil.
The Friedkins entered exclusive talks to buy Everton shortly
after the 777 deal fell apart. The family completed the takeover in December
2024, slashed club debt and agreed new, long-term stadium financing with
JPMorgan.
The club’s net loss narrowed to £8.6mn in 2024-25 from
£53.2mn the previous financial year, as revenues increased to £196.7mn from
£186.9mn. Accounts for Roundhouse show that the Friedkins paid £25mn upfront to
Moshiri, with a further £42mn deferred. Debt repayment and other costs took the
total price of acquisition to £331mn. The Friedkins have injected further funds
since the takeover.
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