City Group offers $190 mln for Brazilian soccer club Bahia

Repositrak

24/09/2022 02:52

SAO PAULO, Sept 23 (Reuters) - City Football Group
(CFG), the owner of Manchester City English Premier League
soccer team, made an offer of 1 billion reais ($190 million) for
90% of Brazilian club Esporte Clube Bahia, CFG said on Friday.
    The purchase is part of a funding bonanza in Brazilian
soccer, following the approval of a law that allowed clubs to
seek outside investment.
    Other professional clubs in the soccer-loving country have
been bought in recent months, such as Belo Horizonte's Cruzeiro,
where former Real Madrid and Brazil striker Ronaldo bought a
controlling stake, and Rio de Janeiro-based team Botafogo.
    The bid for Esporte Clube Bahia, which plays out of Salvador
city, still needs approval from the club's members. The offer is
well above the 650 million reais cited by club president
Guilherme Bellintani to local media earlier this year when talks
with CFG were first announced.
    CFG is majority-owned by Abu Dhabi's Sheikh Mansour bin
Zayed Al Nahyan. Its bid for Bahia includes an option to buy an
additional 5% of the club.
    If the offer is accepted, Esporte Clube Bahia, which plays
in Brazil's second-division pro league, would become the 13th
club purchased by CFG.
($1 = 5.2599 reais)
 (Reporting by Peter Frontini; Editing by David Alire Garcia and
William Mallard)
 ((Peter.Siqueira@thomsonreuters.com; +55 11 56447727;))