PSG is indirectly changing hands on the financial front. One of its minority shareholders, the fund Arctos Partners, has just been bought by the American private equity giant KKR & Co in a deal estimated at one billion dollars, according to Bloomberg.
QSI is seeing one of its partners change. Arctos Partners, which entered PSG’s shareholding structure a few months ago, has been bought for one billion dollars, a figure that could even rise to 1.5 billion dollars when including the bonuses planned for Arctos executives.
A major strategic move in sports investment
This transaction marks a major strategic shift for KKR & Co, which was already managing 723 billion dollars in assets at the end of September. By taking over Arctos, the American group is positioning itself even more strongly in two booming markets: investment in sports and the private equity secondary market.
The completion of the deal is, however, still subject to approval from the major American professional sports leagues, which are responsible for ensuring there are no conflicts of interest.
Arctos Partners is a heavyweight in global sports, with stakes in many major American franchises and minority holdings in several European football clubs, including PSG, Liverpool, and Atalanta. Its acquisition by KKR & Co further strengthens the influence of finance in sports, without changing control of PSG, which is still owned by QSI, and confirms the growing interest of major funds in football.
