As players compete in empty stadiums, clubs shun flashy signings and once-fat TV revenues shrink, an unlikely new force has emerged in English football: a US firm that invests some of PC pioneer Michael Dell’s fortune.Over the past year, MSD Partners has lent almost £80m to Premier League team Southampton, provided funding for the £200m takeover of rival Burnley and made a loan to Derby County, a historic English club.MSD’s first foray into English football predated the pandemic, but the crisis has helped forge an opportunity for the investment firm as the sport confronts an unprecedented financial crisis and other lenders retreat.
The Premier League, the world’s richest football competition, estimates that every month without fans in stadiums collectively costs English teams £100m.“Clubs need cash and MSD has cash,” said Kieran Maguire, a football finance academic at the University of Liverpool and author of The Price of Football. “Commercial banks won’t touch football clubs. It’s perceived as high risk.”MSD, which recently hired senior Goldman Sachs banker Gregg Lemkau to lead the firm, is not the only financial institution barrelling into the sport.
Private equity firms are trying to buy into Serie A, Italy’s top football division.Founded in 2009, MSD, together with Dell’s family office, manages about $19bn, with investments spanning public equities, real estate, private equity and credit. As well as investing some of Dell’s wealth, it also manages substantial amounts for other investors.Helping bankroll the owners of sports teams is not new to MSD. The firm has counted US National Hockey League clubs the St Louis Blues and the Dallas Stars among its borrowers. In 2017, it was part of the financing for the $1.2bn purchase of baseball team the Miami Marlins by a consortium including Derek Jeter, one of the sport’s most celebrated players.
The boy Dell just lends people money.
