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Goldman Sachs, the powerful Wall Street investment bank, has stormed into the £3bn auction of Chelsea Football Club as an adviser to one of the leading bidders.
Sky News has learnt that Goldman has been signed up to advise the consortium being led by Todd Boehly, one of the owners of the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team.
The addition of Goldman to Mr Boehly’s bid is understood to have been disclosed in an offer letter sent to Raine, the merchant bank overseeing Chelsea’s sale, on Friday.
While Goldman’s involvement is limited at this stage to an advisory rather than financing role, its decision to work with Mr Boehly underlines its apparent status as one of the frontrunners to succeed Roman Abramovich as the Blues’ owner.
Spokesmen for Goldman and Mr Boehly both declined to comment on Saturday.
News of the Wall Street bank’s role comes less than 24 hours after Sky News revealed that Clearlake Capital, a California-based investment firm, had joined the consortium, which also includes Hansjorg Wyss, a Swiss businessman, and Jonathan Goldstein, a London-based property investor.
Read more: Deadline for bids passes – here’s who submitted offers to buy the football club
Raine is expected to whittle down dozens of preliminary offers to fewer than a handful in the next few days, leading to more serious and detailed negotiations with the remaining contenders.
Sources said the bid led by Mr Boehly was now “overfunded”, meaning that it, like a number of Chelsea’s other prospective buyers, have secured more capital than they are likely to require to buy the club.
This is largely because of the truncated timetable on which the sale process is being conducted following the sanctioning of Roman Abramovich, the Blues’ owner since 2003.
Lord Finkelstein, a Times journalist, and Barbara Charone, a celebrity publicist, would join Chelsea’s board as non-executive directors if the Boehly bid is successful, it emerged this week.
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Source : skynews
