Santa Monica-based private equity firm Clearlake Capital Group has taken full control of Chelsea FC after buying Mark Walter and Todd Boehly’s minority stakes in the club.
Buyout talks had advanced in recent weeks, a source close to the matter told Bloomberg, as Walter looks to offload assets amid a federal probe into his business. The chief executive of New York-based Guggenheim Partners, who’s under scrutiny for allegedly improperly classifying loans made by his insurance companies to self-fund other ventures, also sold his 85% stake in the Los Angeles Lakers last month in a deal valuing the team at a record-breaking $12.5 billion.
Clearlake, which owns 61.5% of Chelsea, has sought to expand its majority ownership position of the Premier League club for years, but negotiations had previously broken down over price. Walter and Boehly will receive $1.3 billion from the sale, The Financial Times reported.
The two financiers owned roughly 25% of the club, valued at $6.7 billion including debt. A remaining 12.83% stake is owned by Swiss philanthropist Hansjörg Wyss, who will stay on as a partner.
Clearlake declined comment, and Boehly and Walter’s representatives did not respond to requests for comment.
In September 2024, Bloomberg reported that Clearlake and Boehly began considering buying each other’s stakes after butting heads on the club’s direction. That came only two years after a consortium led by the firm and the Eldridge Industries chief executive bought Chelsea from Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich for roughly $3.4 billion.
Clearlake, Feliciano pile in
As Walter dashes out of sports investments, Clearlake and its leaders are ramping up their bets on teams and clubs.
The firm’s co-founder and managing partner, José E. Feliciano, announced a deal to buy a 40% stake in the San Diego Padres in May with his wife, singer-songwriter Kwanza Jones. The couple were crowned the team’s new majority owners last month after the MLB unanimously approved the sale, which set the team’s value at $3.9 billion.
Private capital has historically played a larger role in European sports than in North America, where leagues only began allowing passive and non-majority private equity team ownership in the last decade.
