Sixth Street preparing bid for German football media rights - FT (updated)

Sixth Street Specialty Lending

06/02/2023 05:44

(Adds background)
       Feb 6 (Reuters) - U.S. investor Sixth Street is among
the companies preparing to bid for a portion of the German
football league's media and commercial rights, the Financial
Times reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the
matter.
    The report comes as Germany's soccer governing body is
pressing on with plans to sell parts of the Bundesliga media
rights for the country's first and second leagues to private
investors.
    The German football league was initially expected to sell a
20% stake in a newly created company handling the Bundesliga's
media rights in October, but pushed it to this year after a lack
of consensus among the league clubs.
    The business is valued at between 15 billion euros and 18
billion euros, with a 20% stake priced at about 3.6 billion
euros ($3.89 billion).
    Several private equity funds including CVC, Bain Capital,
KKR  KKR.N , EQT  EQTAB.ST , Advent, Blackstone  BX.N  and
Bridgepoint  BPTB.L  came forward in 2022 to express interest in
the deal, Reuters had reported.
    Sixth Street declined to comment on the Financial Times
report, while DFL and Bundesliga did not immediately respond to
Reuters requests for comment.
($1 = 0.9265 euros)
 (Reporting by Gokul Pisharody in Bengaluru; Editing by
Subhranshu Sahu)
 ((Gokul.Pisharody@thomsonreuters.com;))