Liverpool owners confirm sale of minority stake to consortium including Jeff Bezos
Liverpool’s owners, Fenway Sports Group (FSG), have confirmed the sale of a minority stake in the Premier League club to a consortium including U.S. billionaire and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
The agreement, announced Friday, follows talks that were first reported in July. The move represents Bezos’ first foray into sports after many years of links to investment in a number of north American sports franchises.
The size of the stake was not disclosed but is expected to be in the range of approximately 30 per cent to one-third, per sources with knowledge of the investment, not authorised to speak publicly because of the confidentiality of the process.
Bezos’ involvement comes via the K5 Sports fund. The lead partner in the deal though is Amit Bhatia, the former Queens Park Rangers co-owner, who has led and managed the 1892 Holdings consortium. They are joined by the family office of Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin and his wife Elaine.
Bhatia will take up the position of vice chairman and will be joined on the club’s board by Elaine Saverin and Bryan Baum of K5 Sports. Bezos will not have a seat on the board, sources with knowledge of the plans going forward say.
It is the first external minority investment in the club since Dynasty Equity purchased a three per cent stake in Liverpool for approaching $200million back in September 2023.
FSG will continue to retain majority ownership and operational control of the club, a release confirming the sale on Friday said. Sources with knowledge of the investment, speaking anonymously as they weren’t authorised to do so publicly, indicate there will be no change to the leadership or day-to-day operation of the club.
Liverpool owner John W Henry and his wife Linda Pizzuti Henry with the Premier League trophy in 2025. (Michael Regan / Getty Images for The Premier League)
FSG president Mike Gordon said: “Liverpool has always been built by thinking beyond one season and making decisions with the club’s long-term interests in mind. That approach continues to attract interest from respected investors and business leaders around the world.
“As we considered this opportunity, it became clear that Amit and the consortium shared our long-term philosophy and appreciation for what makes Liverpool special. Their experience and perspective will complement the strong foundation already in place, and we look forward to working together.”
Bhatia, on behalf of 1892 Holdings, said: “We are incredibly proud to be investing in Liverpool Football Club and to be doing so alongside FSG. We have the utmost respect and admiration for FSG as owners and for everything they have achieved at Anfield.
“To be welcomed as a partner in a club of this stature is a huge privilege. We are making this investment because we believe deeply in Liverpool and its leadership, and we look forward to supporting the club’s continued success for years to come.”
Who are Bhatia, Bezos and Saverin – and just how wealthy are they?
Bezos, 62, is best known as being the founder of the largest e-commerce company, Amazon. According to Forbes’ ‘Real Time Net Worth’, Bezos is the world’s third richest person, behind Elon Musk and Larry Page, one of the co-founders of Google. It says the Bezos has a net worth of $272.1bn.
Bezos launched Amazon from his own garage in 1994 after he had left his role at New York Investment Bank D.E. Shaw. He stepped down as the company’s chief executive officer in 2021. Bezos is also the owner of the Washington Post and founder of space technology company Blue Origin.
Saverin is best known for co-founding social network site Facebook alongside Mark Zuckerberg, whom he met when attending Harvard. Born in Brazil, his family emigrated to the United States in 1993.
The 44-year-old moved to Singapore in 2009, renouncing his U.S. citizenship before the initial public offering of Facebook. Saverin launched venture fund B Capital alongside Raj Ganguly in 2015, which has more than $12bn in assets under management.
British-Indian millionaire Bhatia, 46, is a former investment banker who previously worked for Morgan Stanley. He is chairman of British construction firm Breedon Group, managing director of AyBe Capital Advisors and a founding partner of property investment firm Summix Capital.
He married Vanisha Mittal Bhatia, the daughter of Indian steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal, in 2004. Lakshmi Mittal once ranked as high as third in Forbes’ global ranking of billionaires, but most recently sat 64th with an estimated worth of $33.9bn. Saverin sits two places below him with an estimated wealth of $33.2bn.
Bhatia announced in July that he was stepping down from the Queens Park Rangers board. (Jed Leicester / Getty Images)
Have they been involved in sports before?
Bhatia announced in July that he was stepping down from the Queens Park Rangers board and transferring his shares in the Championship club to majority owner Ruben Gnanalingam. This ended his near 19-year tenure with QPR. He served as vice-chairman until 2018, before becoming chairman, a role he held until 2023.
For Saverin, this would not be his first attempt to venture into football ownership, as he was part of the consortium that backed former Boston Celtics co-owner Steve Pagliuca’s bid to buy Chelsea in 2022 from Roman Abramovich. The Russian billionaire sold the club after being put under pressure to do so from the UK government following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Bezos has yet to step into the sports investment world either, but he has looked at the possibility of buying NFL franchises, having explored making an offer for the Washington Commanders and the Seattle Seahawks.
Why is FSG willing to sell a third of Liverpool?
“John Henry (Liverpool’s principal owner) has been very up front about the fact that if there ever was an opportunity for investment that would help the club, then they would seriously consider it,” Liverpool’s chief executive Billy Hogan told The Athletic last month.
It remained consistent with an FSG statement in November 2022 which said “under the right terms and conditions, we would consider new shareholders, if it was in the best interests of Liverpool as a club”.
FSG has shown in recent years it will welcome outside investment either in the parent company or Liverpool. In March 2021, RedBird Capital Partners invested around $735m to acquire an 11.5 per cent stake in FSG, helping stabilise finances after the Covid pandemic.
Over two years later, Dynasty Equity acquired a roughly three per cent stake in the club, based on how much of the money flowed directly into Liverpool’s coffers, for just under $150m. The investment was used to cover costs of the Anfield Road Stand redevelopment and the repurchasing of Melwood training ground, which became the home of the club’s women’s team, as well as repaying a tranche of bank debt.
The last minority investment helped fund the renovation of the Anfield Road Stand. (Paul Ellis/AFP via Getty Images)
Even with the stake being in the region of 30 per cent, it still leaves FSG in control, but it now has more people to potentially carry the burden of continuing to grow the business.
There is the point, too, that every investment has its own lifespan.
Arjun Nagarkatti, head of private bank, U.S. and Europe international at Deutsche Bank, while not speaking about the specifics of this deal or on what FSG’s overriding motive in selling a stake might be, highlights that any investor has to choose when is “a good time to monetise their asset”. It is a consideration which spans all asset classes including, given its continually increasing wealth, football.
In this case, FSG has been at Anfield for a decade and a half, overseen significant on-field success and huge value appreciation off it. Selling a large minority stake now would generate a huge return for the group.
Will this bolster the club financially going forward?
Since purchasing Liverpool in October 2010, FSG has used a self-sustaining model to run the club. All of the money generated is reinvested. While it has been a point of frustration at times when supporters have felt the owners have failed to capitalise on Liverpool being in a position of strength, it is a model that has worked, with the club returning to the top of the domestic game and competing for the biggest trophies.
Having a consortium full of very wealthy people investing in the club should, in theory, strengthen Liverpool’s financial position further.
It could open up new sponsorship avenues which would further enhance the significant revenues the club is generating season upon season. Last summer they showed a willingness to invest heavily in the playing squad, and under the new squad cost ratio rules that are replacing profit and sustainability rules, it could enhance their power in the transfer market.
As outlined above, the investment by Dynasty conferred direct funding from Liverpool’s shareholders for the first time in almost a decade, with £146.5m of cash flowing in across the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons.
Much of that was used to pay for infrastructure works, and it is extremely unlikely that whatever sum a large minority stake brings will be ploughed directly into the club, not least because football’s financial rules have reduced the efficacy of owners pouring big sums in. But the arrival of a well-backed minority partner may see a shift in owner funding for a business model that has, for the most part, been self-sustaining under FSG.
Does this mean a future majority sale to this consortium?
Not necessarily. Liverpool sources say that the documents for the transaction do allow flexibility around how this relationship might change as time goes on.
They insist, though, that it is not an indication of future intentions and does not mean there is a predetermined route to another purchase of a further stake in Liverpool.