Kirkland & Ellis, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Paul Hastings are advising on a Chinese consortium’s acquisition of a $400 million stake in City Football Group, the owners of Manchester City Football Club.
The consortium is led by China Media Capital (CMC) Holdings and CITIC Capital, and will take a stake of more than 13 percent in the Abu Dhabi-owned City Football Group.
The deal involves the issue of new shares in City Football Group in addition to those owned by Sheikh Mansour’s Abu Dhabi United Group.
Investment from Sheikh Mansour has transformed the fortunes of Manchester City since 2008, and the club won the English Premier League in 2012 and 2014.
A Kirkland & Ellis team headed by Hong Kong partner Frank Sun is advising CITIC Capital on the deal.
Freshfields is representing CMC, led by Hong Kong partner Edward Freeman, while Paul Hastings is legal counsel for City Football Group.
Ruigang Li, chairman of state-backed media company CMC, will join the board of the City Football Group. “Football is now at a fascinating and critical stage of development in China,” he said in a statement.
“We see unprecedented growth opportunities in both its development as an industry, being China’s most watched sport.”
CMC already owns a slate of sports media rights, including for Chinese Super League football in a deal reportedly worth more than $1 billion and the national teams.
The capital from the share acquisition will be used by City Football Group to fund its China growth, further international business expansion opportunities and on infrastructure.
In addition to Manchester City Football Club, City Football Group also includes New York City FC, Melbourne City FC and a stake in Japan’s Yokohama F. Marinos.
