A trio of US-based investors are set to invest in Welsh football club Swansea City, according to people familiar with the situation.
(Bloomberg) — A trio of US-based investors are set to invest in Welsh football club Swansea City, according to people familiar with the situation.
Nigel Morris, co-founder and managing partner of QED Investors, alongside Andy Coleman, an investor in the US soccer team DC United, and Brett Cravatt, co-founder of Centerfield, a digital customer acquisition company, will invest an initial £10 million ($12.5 million) in the club, the people said, who asked not to be named discussing ongoing discussions.
The trio will join a group of majority owners including Steve Kaplan, co-founder of Oaktree Capital Management, who currently own a little over 80% of the club.
US-based investors have been flooding into teams outside the Premier League, boosted by a strong dollar, an expected upturn in broadcast revenues and an interest in British football amplified by the success of Wrexham, another Welsh team. Wrexham was recently promoted from the fifth tier of English football under the aegis of actor-owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenny.
US-based investors have bet on teams including Ipswich Town, Lincoln City and Crawley Town, while hedge fund manager Tom Wagner is close to buying a stake in Birmingham City Football Club.
Swansea City was the first Welsh club to play in the Premier League in 2011 but was relegated after s seven-year spell in the top flight, and has since played in the second-tier where it currently stands in 12th place. Its latest reported accounts, for the COVID-affected year to July, 2021, show a loss of £4.6 million ($5.7 million) down from £50 million to £27.5 million.
The club is co-owned by Jason Levien, owner of DC United, and Jake Silverstein, chairman of family office Stormlight Holdings.
The Swansea supporters’ trust has a further stake of around 12%, which will be diluted by these transactions but can go no lower than 5%. Following the new investment, the current directors will hold around 50% of the club, the people said.
Based in Virginia, new investor Nigel Morris is the former co-founder of Capital One Financial Corp, and has invested in firms including Nubank, Avant, SoFi, and Klarna. Although growing up in England, according to the QED website he “takes immense pride in the fact that he is at least half Welsh.”
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