FSG and Liverpool partners raising £2bn to plough funds into Paris Saint-Germain

FSG and Liverpool partners raise £2bn to pump money into Paris Saint-Germain

Arctos Sports Partners has plenty of sports investments in its portfolio – and could soon include Paris Saint-Germain

One of the Liverpool owner’s partners, Fenway Sports Group, is considering a possible stake in Paris Saint-Germain.

According to CBS and Sky Sports, Arctos Sports Partners is among the companies looking to acquire part of the French giant. The American investment entered the capital of FSG in 2020 and became a partner.

PSG owners Qatar Sports Investments (QSI) have been trying to sell a stake since last year. They want to raise funds for the PSG project to support the project of a new stadium, among other things, because the club has been a tenant of the Parc des Princes, property of the Paris City Hall, since 1974. To fuel the growth QSI hope to achieve with PSG, a new stadium is seen as a key part of their plans and incorporating new investment will bring them closer to that goal.

Arctos has a significant number of sports investments in its portfolio, with indirect interests in the FSG-owned Reds, Boston Red Sox and Pittsburgh Penguins. Among many other sports investments, the company has also acquired stakes in NBA teams such as the Golden State Warriors and Sacramento Kings, as well as Italian Serie A club Atalanta. The company also has interests in Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, owner of the Philadelphia 76ers and NBA team the New Jersey Devils.

The company, co-founded by Ian Charles and David O’Connor in 2019, raised its second investment fund in 2021 and is expected to close in the coming months, with a target of $2.5bn (£2bn ) hit. This fund will be used for various sporting opportunities, with PSG aiming to sell between 10 and 15 per cent of the club at a value of 4 billion euros (£3.2 billion).

In 2021, Arctos brought in a well-known man from main Liverpool owner John Henry and FSG – former Boston Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein. His role is to “advise the owners of the teams in which Arctos invests, across multiple leagues, on issues such as organizational leadership, culture building and other areas of business.”

Arctos vice president Peter F. Valhouli-Farb is another well-known face of FSG. Valhouli-Farb served as Chief Strategy Officer for the FSG and Red Sox and was “responsible for evaluating potential team acquisitions, researching and evaluating non-team investments, acquisitions and collaborative opportunities, launching new businesses across within the FSG platform and assessing growth and monetization strategies for FSG’s existing portfolio.”

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Arctos’ modus operandi is not to assume positions of absolute control, but to provide capital solutions to leagues and clubs to enable growth.

Just as QSI is in Paris, FSG itself is currently looking to invest specifically in Liverpool. The owners of The Reds are looking to a “strategic partner” – possibly a media and entertainment company – to bring in both scalable capital and experience to enable the club to grow as a business. This could open up the possibility for a new co-owner to have the ability to grow a minority stake into a majority stake down the road.