Are FSG gearing up to sell Liverpool?
The Boston-based ownership are once again ready to sell a minority stake in the club, but this time it feels like a significant step towards an exit for multiple reasons.
It may be quiet in the transfer market for Liverpool at the moment, but that does not mean there aren’t deals being negotiated at Anfield.
That is because, as emerged on Tuesday, British-Indian businessman Amit Bhatia is heading up a consortium hoping to acquire a minority stake in the club.
Upon that news breaking, sources close to owners Fenway Sports Group were at pains to insist that talks are at an early stage, yet it is understood they have been taking place for a number of months.
What’s more, the fact that Bhatia has now transferred his stake in Queens Park Rangers to majority owner Ruben Gnanalingam after 18 years of involvement felt instructive.
It might not just be the pace of those negotiations that FSG are trying to obscure at this point, either, but also their long-term implications.
While it is, indeed, early to draw such conclusions, this does have all the hallmarks of a move that could pave a path to the American owners eventually departing.
Clearly, that was not the case with the investment made by Dynasty Equity in 2023, which was estimated to give them just 3-4% of the club worth roughly £125m.
This time around, though, the suggestion is that a far more significant stake of up to 30% is being discussed, while the identity of the investors involved is equally noteworthy.
For starters, Bhatia is representing the interests of his father-in-law Lakshmi Mittal - once ranked the third-richest person in the world and in possession of a net worth of around £15 billion.
It is said, too, that Amazon owner Jeff Bezos - the fourth-richest man in the world with a net worth of £192bn - has been approached to join the investment group.
Given Liverpool’s standing in the sporting world is lofty enough, it is clearly not the case that a man like Bezos is needed in order to boost the reputation of the project as a whole.
Instead, it makes more sense that he might be required for his sheer financial might, particularly if an overall valuation of £4.5bn is ever to be met in the long term.
