By Semih Tuna / info@eurohoops.net
According to the Financial Times, BC Partners Private equity firm “has entered exclusive talks to buy a minority stake in the EuroLeague basketball competition, edging out rivals including General Atlantic and Saudi Arabia’s SURJ Sports Investment”.
As Eurohoops had reported on the 2nd of September, BC Partners, and General Atlantic with the support of SURJ had made their presentation to the EuroLeague shareholders and the decision about giving them a minority stake was active with the 30% being valued at €300 million.
Per the Financial Times “the ECA (EuroLeague Commercial Assets) had set the price for roughly a third of the EuroLeague Basketball shares at one billion euros”, so the numbers are matching.
According to the report, the talks may be completed within a month, but per Eurohoops sources this is a timeline that seems too optimistic.
EuroLeague is the top-tier competition in Europe and is widely recognized as the top basketball championship in the world after the NBA.
It has to be noted that BC Partners also owns United Media which is the TV rights shareholder of the EuroLeague in the Balkans, including Greece and Serbia, two of the main EuroLeague markets.