PSG and Liverpool's investor, Arctos, faces acquisition by colossal KKR. This massive shift could reshape football's elite ownership landscape.
Having taken a stake in Paris Saint-Germain in 2023, the American investment fund Arctos could soon be acquired by an even larger American fund.
This is the economic news of the week in the world of football, and it indirectly concerns PSG and Liverpool. These two European football giants, who faced each other in the Champions League round of 16 last season, are partly owned by the American investment fund Arctos Partners, which invested around 500 million euros in 2023 to acquire a 12.5% stake in QSI, the investment company managed by the Qatari government that has owned PSG since 2011.
According to the Financial Times, a renowned British economic and financial daily, the New York-based investment fund KKR is in advanced discussions to acquire a majority stake in Arctos. However, sources consulted by the British media specify that negotiations are still ongoing and could still fall through. To simplify, the current minority shareholder of PSG, Arctos, which manages over $14 billion in assets, could be swallowed by KKR, which itself has over $700 billion in assets, making it one of the major players in private equity.
What would this change concretely mean for PSG? At first glance, not much, but it always seems more interesting to have strong economic partners, and KKR, which has had offices in Paris since 2019, is much larger than Arctos. The Financial Times notes that Arctos is also attracting interest from other major private equity groups and asset managers and that any transaction would likely require approval from the various professional leagues in which the teams in its portfolio operate.
In addition to PSG and Liverpool, Arctos also holds minority stakes in several American sports franchises, such as the Golden State Warriors and the Utah Jazz in the NBA, the Los Angeles Dodgers in baseball, as well as two NFL teams, the Los Angeles Chargers and the Buffalo Bills. Arctos is also a minority shareholder of the Aston Martin Formula 1 team.
Meanwhile, the owners of PSG, Qatar Sports Investments, continue to expand their portfolio. And just announced on Tuesday, the ongoing acquisition of KAS Eupen, a Belgian club playing in the second division, which had belonged since 2012 to the Aspire Zone Foundation, based in Qatar.
"QSI has signed a memorandum of understanding confirming the complete and imminent acquisition – subject to usual regulatory approvals – and the immediate assumption of the sporting operations of KAS Eupen. Under the terms of this memorandum of understanding, QKR will rapidly take full operational control of the club, including all associated sporting, commercial, and operational assets," can be read in the statement.