The Times - UK (2022-05-25)

the times | Wednesday May 25 2022 65

Sport

As Chelsea fans queued for their pints

in the West Stand Lower at Stamford

Bridge during half-time of their match

against Arsenal, none had a clue that

they were standing next to the billion-

aire new majority owner of their club.

Behdad Eghbali continues to do a

very good job of maintaining a low

profile despite his financial backing,

through the private equity firm Clear-

lake Capital, being key to securing the

biggest takeover in sport.

The new Chelsea hierarchy is fronted

by Todd Boehly, but Clearlake has 60

per cent of the shares, and 50 per cent of

voting rights, making Eghbali, the com-

pany’s co-founder, an important figure

shaping Chelsea’s future. So who is he?

Born in Iran, he is understood to have

moved to the US in 1986, aged ten. He

studied business at university in

California and, after a successful period

in private equity handling buyouts for

TPG Capital, founded Clearlake in

2006 with José E. Feliciano.

The firm, based in Santa Monica,

now manages more than $70 billion

(about £56 billion) of investments, and

Chelsea is an unusual sporting diver-

sion for a company that has mostly

looked to technology, industrials and

consumer sectors. But it is hardly a big

risk. According to the Clearlake’s web-

site, it has raised more than $25 billion

in capital in less than 18 months.

It has a strong record of delivering

high returns for investors — generally

by taking over mid-sized companies in

the US and showing rapid growth. The

Raine Group, which handled the sale, is

understood to have required a ten-year

commitment from the new owner to

address any concerns that such signifi-

cant private-equity involvement is

made in the hope of a quick buck.

Eghbali, Boehly and their partners —

Hansjörg Wyss and Mark Walter — are

said to be realistic that Chelsea will

continue to need investment but

believe that an elite Premier League

club with Champions League aspira-

tions will only grow in worth.

Eghbali, 46, is said to regard the pur-

chase as a solid long-term bet but also a

chance to try something a little differ-

ent and exciting. He has been to a hand-

ful of Chelsea matches, bringing his

family, since the bidding process began

and is said to have been blown away by

the passion and raucousness.

Eghbali is said to have a good work-

ing relationship with Boehly, forged

over previous business dealings. Boehly

is expected to continue to be in the

foreground, with Eghbali happy to

wield his influence behind the scenes.

Both men have passed the owners’

and directors’ tests of the Premier

League and Clearlake is believed to

have provided assurances about the

identities of its underlying investors,

and that it is not reliant on any

Russian backing.

Eghbali has been

to a handful of

Chelsea matches

today approved the proposed takeover

of Chelsea Football Club by the Todd

Boehly/Clearlake Consortium,” it read.

“The purchase remains subject to the

government issuing the required

sale licence and the satisfactory

completion of the final stages of the

transaction.

“The board has applied the Premier

League’s owners’ and directors’ test to

all prospective directors, and undertak-

en the necessary due diligence.

“The members of the consortium

purchasing the club are affiliates of the

Clearlake Capital Group L.P., Todd

Boehly, Hansjörg Wyss and Mark

Walter.

“Chelsea FC will now work with the

relevant governments to secure the

necessary licences to complete the

takeover.”

Government officials were hoping to

resolve the remaining issues last night

in an effort to issue a licence for the sale

of the west London club.

But it now seems certain that the

takeover will be approved both in the

UK and in Portugal.

One source said: “We now believe

everyone will be ready to issue the

necessary licences.

“The last remaining hurdle boils

down to a number of final technical

details that are being discussed with

the club.”

continued from back

Chelsea sale set to go through

The money man

by Matt Dickinson

battle of the billionaires

MARK GREENWOOD/IPS/SHUTTERSTOCK

Eghbali good

at keeping a

low profile

East Stand

11,500

Millennium

& Copthorne

Hotel

Sir Oswald

Stoll mansions

West Stand

13,500

Chelsea

Megastore

Shed End

6,453

Plan for 2015 expansion, scrapped three years later

Footprint

of previous

planned

expansion

Matthew

Harding

Stand

10,884

District

Line

Chelsea

Museum

Chelsea’s pressing need: expansion

Overground

train line

Planned

pedestrian

access to Tube

The plan for expansion

included demolition of the

museum, megastore and

nearby hotel. It also covered

a portion of the District Line,

with new pedestrian access

to Fulham Broadway station

Chelsea's stadium lags behind their rivals but a plan in 2015 to improve it was never acted upon.

Bidders for the club had to agree to spend £1.75bn on upgrading it after the takeover

Old Trafford 74,140

Tottenham Hotspur Stadium 62,850

Emirates Stadium 60,260

Etihad Stadium 55,097

Anfield 53,394

Stamford Bridge 41,837

Premier League’s ‘big six’

stadium capacities

Brompton

cemetery

London in hedge fund head who prefers shorts to suits

Angeles Times this month carried the
headline: “Who is Todd Boehly?”
He is the 46-year-old American
hedge fund billionaire who joined
Guggenheim Partners in 2001 and
then started Eldridge Industries in

2015. Eldridge invests in businesses
      and entrepreneurs, holding assets
      worth around £32 billion.
      Boehly’s degree in
      finance came from Willi-
      am & Mary university in
      Virginia, but he also
      studied at the London
      School of Economics,
      where he fell in love
      with the city. His
      business degree
      hangs on the wall at
      his office at the head-
      quarters of Eldridge
      in Greenwich, Con-
      necticut, along with
      Dodgers and LA
      Lakers memorabilia.

purchase agreement to buy the club

from Roman Abramovich.

“If he has an Armani suit I haven’t

seen it,” Colletti said. “We were playing

in Atlanta six or seven years ago and he

came in with his kids, in shorts and a

T-shirt. This is one of the owners of the

team. A guy that is very unassuming

but really, really good at what he does.

“It seemed like he was always some

place: this city one day and another the

next day, and another the day after,

constantly investigating things. He has

great curiosity and vision.”

Boehly teamed up with Mark Walter,

the chief executive of Guggenheim

Partners and part of the consortium at

Chelsea, to buy a 27 per cent stake in the

LA Lakers basketball team last year.

Sport has become a key part of Boehly’s

business. “Because it is intellectually

stimulating,” he told the Sporticast

podcast last year.

Unlike the Dodgers, the Lakers and

now Chelsea were already successful at

the time of investment. “I like the ones

that have significant momentum

already behind them,” Boehly said.

“They are more expensive but they are

generally better value.”

As in the case of Chelsea, few could

believe the price Boehly and his group

paid for the Dodgers. But he calculated

that the value of the team increased by

50 per cent within the first year.

“It is humbling when you do every-

thing right and don’t win,” he said. “You

ultimately start, you figure it out, you

put the right people in place, you build

the right foundations and you then let it

run. If you are in the right place enough

times and have built something that is

sustainable, then it can continue to

perpetuate.”

Colletti said Boehly has been part of

a passionate ownership group. “They

are businessmen and they do great

business,” he said. “But they are also

fans, they are people that have a love for

sport, a love for the team they follow.”

“I did baseball for 40 years and Todd

is one of the smartest people I know,”

Colletti said. “We have a trading

deadline in baseball on July 31 and

we have meetings where all the

owners and GMs get together

every December. He would be

all around all that, with a lot of

questions. We had a couple

of people in the owner-

ship group. He would

linger a little longer than

the others and he listens

a lot.”

First impressions for

Chelsea fans have not

been of the stereotypi-

cal billionaire, as Boeh-

ly wore a hoodie and

trainers with odd laces at

Stamford Bridge the night

he signed the £4.25 billion

Chelsea may

spend some

of the £200m

on replacing

Romelu Lukaku

Boehly is passionate about

sport and just wants to win

Sport