A group of Liverpool investors have just sealed a major business deal that gives a hint about the club’s direction under Fenway Sports Group.
FSG first bought into Liverpool in 2011 for around £300m and have seen their penitential return on investment soar in the years since.
It is believed that the club’s current enterprise value could be as high as £3.6bn, which would be a world record for a football club takeover.
And although there is no indication that FSG will cash in any time soon, their capital appreciation model means that they will one day flip the club for a huge profit.
Football clubs’ values are subject, but the £3.6bn valuation is drawn partly from Dynasty Equity’s investment in the club in 2023.
The US firm paid somewhere up to £158m for a stake between two and three per cent, although the specifics of the deal are not known.
And Dynasty equity’s latest business venture may also tell Liverpool fans something about the group plans at Anfield and how they plan to contribute to FSG’s strategy.
Liverpool co-owners seal Woods-McIlroy deal
This week, West Ham became the latest Premier League club to be linked with celebrity investment.
NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal is reportedly in talks to acquire a minority stake in the club, following in the footsteps of Tom Brady at Birmingham City and Will Ferrell at Leeds United.
The alleged talks are perhaps validation of a strategy that Liverpool adopted over a decade ago in getting fellow basketball hero LeBron James onboard as a minority investor.
The LA Lakers power forward owns a two per cent stake in the club and has collaborated with kit supplier Nike on a range of Liverpool and LeBron-branded merchandise.
Now, Dynasty Equity have shown that they want to follow a similar model in terms of celebrity-endorsed projects.
As reported by SportsPro Media, the New York-headquartered group have invested in TMRW, a£395m-valued tech-sports business fronted by golf giants Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy.
Woods was named in Sports Illustrated’s 50 Most Powerful People in Sport list for 2024, while McIllroy’s role in the proposed PGA-LIVE Golf merger being engineered by Newcastle owners the Saudi Public Investment Fund means he is surely also in that elite category.
Dynasty Equity appear to be favouring the same model as FSG in capitalising on the star power of celebrity sportspeople to propel their brand.
Significantly, this is just what FSG co-owners RedBird Capital are also doing with their appointment of Zlatan Ibrahimovic into a consultancy role.
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When will FSG sell Liverpool?
In short, it will not be any time soon.
The Dynasty Equity investment last year ended speculation that FSG could divest a majority stake in the company, which started when the club announced it was seeking strategic investment in 2022.
However, FSG supremo John Henry is orchestrating a capital appreciation project at Liverpool, and that means he will want a return at some point.
The US-based owners in the Premier League believe that English clubs are, in fact, undervalued given their global reach.
Liverpool have achieved incremental growth with their sporting on-pitch revival in recent years, the redevelopment of Anfield and a maturing commercial operation.
But many investors believe that a dramatic spike in value is possible, although at this stage it is not clear where that would come from.
Henry clearly believed the catalyst would be the European Super League.
But that competition now appears dead and buried, even with the European Court of Justice’s recent ruling that suggested UEFA and FIFA were not entitled to block clubs from joining breakaway competitions.
In any case, the imminent introduction of an independent regulator for English football, which is privately opposed by Liverpool, would put pay to any hopes of a Super League revival.