Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
The family that owns the Los Angeles Lakers is closing in on a deal to sell its majority stake in the National Basketball Association team to Guggenheim Partners chief executive Mark Walter at a valuation of about $10bn, which would be the largest-ever sale of a sports team.
The sale would mark the end of an era at one of the sporting world’s most fabled brands, which the Buss family, who originally made their money in real estate, has owned since 1979. Jeanie Buss, the Lakers’ controlling owner, would continue to control the team as its governor after the deal closes, said a person close to the matter.
Walter, who runs $300bn private asset manager and brokerage Guggenheim Partners, first took a minority stake in the Lakers in 2021 alongside Eldridge Industries co-founder Todd Boehly in a deal that valued the business at about $5bn. As part of that deal, Walter had a right of first refusal to take ownership of the team.
A spokesperson for Walter said in an emailed statement that he was “entering into an agreement to acquire additional interests in the NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers, of which he has been a stakeholder since 2021”.
Taking ownership of the Lakers would further catapult Walter into the forefront of the sports world. He and Boehly jointly own the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team and are part-owners of Premier League football team Chelsea FC.
A deal, valuing the Lakers at about $10bn, was likely to be announced in the coming days, according to three people familiar with the talks. The Lakers’ valuation far exceeds the price tag of other major league teams, in a sign that the demand for sports teams as trophy assets continues unabated.
Earlier this year, the Boston Celtics was sold to a consortium led by private equity investor Bill Chisholm in a deal worth $6.1bn, marking the previous high-water mark for a sports team takeover. In 2023, a consortium led by investor Josh Harris paid $6.05bn for the Washington Commanders National Football League team.
Walter would be investing his personal money into the Lakers, said a person briefed on the matter, and not that of the recently created holding company TWG Global, which he jointly oversees alongside media and technology billionaire Thomas Tull.
The deal is subject to approval by the NBA’s board of governors, on which the heads of all 30 of the league’s franchises sit. In order to ease owners’ path to monetise a part of their ownership, the NBA in 2021 allowed teams to receive passive investments of up to 20 per cent from private equity groups, including Arctos Partners and Sixth Street.
Jeanie Buss’s father Jerry first bought the Lakers for $67.5mn in 1979. Under the Buss family’s ownership, the Lakers have won 11 championships, the most successful record of any team in the league. The Lakers last won the NBA championship in 2020, led by superstar LeBron James.
Read the full article here
