Just In: Wes Edens speaks out as Atairos makes a final decision about the takeover of Aston Villa.
Wes Edens speaks out as Atairos makes a final decision about the takeover of Aston Villa.
After first investing in Edens and Sawiris’ V Sports holding firm the previous year, Atairos currently own roughly 31% of the club’s stock.
Importantly, Aston Villa was recently valued at nearly £1 billion thanks to a £50 million capital infusion from Atairos rather than the two principal owners.
Furthermore, even if the market might not actually reach that price, it shows how much Aston Villa’s stock has increased since the NSWE takeover in 2018.
At Villa Park, where Unai Emery has produced the kind of success that hasn’t been seen in B6 in decades, what are Atairos‘ long-term goals?
The private equity business model is rather straightforward: acquire cheap, maximize profits and add value, and then sell for a profit.
TBR Football spoke directly with Kieran Maguire, a football finance lecturer at Liverpool University, author of Price of Football, and industry insider to find out how, if at all, Villa fit into this model.
Earlier this week, Edens gave a rare interview in which he discussed minority investment and the private equity model, but only in relation to his ownership of the Milwaukee Bucks, an NFL team.
“For many reasons, we believed that consolidating ownership was a legitimate objective,” he stated.
Having fewer owners in the organization, in my opinion, makes things a little easier to handle. I don’t mean to offend those who sold; they invested and had a great return on their investment.
Leave a Reply