City Football Group Announces $500 Million Strategic Investment by Silver Lake; Acquires Majority Stake in Mumbai City Football Club

December 17, 2019

London – Paul Hastings LLP, a leading global law firm, announced today that it has represented City Football Group Limited (“CFG”) on its investment deal with U.S. private equity firm Silver Lake, which saw Silver Lake invest $500 million in CFG for just over 10% of the company’s post-investment equity. The deal values CFG at approximately $4.8 billion.

In a separate transaction, Paul Hastings also advised CFG on its acquisition of a 65% majority stake in the Indian Super League’s Mumbai City Football Club. Mumbai City becomes the eighth club in the CFG network.

For further information, please see CFG’s full announcements in respect of both deals here and here.

Established in May 2013, City Football Group is the world’s leading private owner and operator of football clubs, with total or partial ownership of clubs in seven other major cities across the world in addition to Mumbai: Premier League Champions Manchester City in the UK; New York City FC in the U.S.; Melbourne FC in Australia; Yokohama F. Marinos in Japan; Club Atletico Torque in Uruguay; Girona Futbol Club in Spain; and Sichuan Jiuniu FC in China.

These two transactions are the latest in a series of matter on which Paul Hastings has represented CFG, which has included advising CFG on the acquisition (with UBTECH and China Sports Capital) of Sichuan Jiuniu in February this year.

The Paul Hastings team on all three matters was led by London corporate partner Matthew Poxon, alongside managing partner Ronan O’Sullivan, senior associate David Prowse and associates Aimée Fabri and Sam Waite. New York partner Bruce DePaola advised on the Major League Soccer aspects of the Silver Lake transaction and London partner Arun Birla and associate Jiten Tank advised on tax.

At Paul Hastings, our purpose is clear — to help our clients and people navigate new paths to growth. With a strong presence throughout Asia, Europe, Latin America, and the U.S., Paul Hastings is recognized as one of the world’s most innovative global law firms.