Sheffield United Is Latest Football Club to Agree US Takeover

Posted by Admin December 5, 2024 Football

(Bloomberg) — An American consortium has agreed to buy Sheffield United, one of the biggest English football teams outside the Premier League.

Resilience Capital Partners co-founder Stephen H. Rosen and Helmy Eltoukhy, chairman of biotech firm Guardant Health Inc., signed a deal with Sheffield United owner Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud on behalf of a group of investors, according to a statement from the buyers confirming an earlier Bloomberg News report.

The consortium, COH Sports, has received full clearance from the English Football League (EFL), it said. The financial details weren’t disclosed.

The takeover is the latest US deal for an English club outside the Premier League after investments in teams like Birmingham City, Ipswich Town, Carlisle United and Norwich City. More than a third of the 92 professional teams in England’s top four leagues now have some form of American ownership, including Wrexham, the Welsh team controlled by Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney.

A swift conclusion to the deal will allow the team to buy new players in the January transfer window, said Rosen and Eltoukhy in a statement. “Like all Sheffield United supporters, we want to see the club building on its strong start to the season,” they said.

Sheffield United, currently in first place in the EFL Championship, has been for sale since at least May 2023, according to an investor presentation seen by Bloomberg News. The club was relegated from the top league last season, causing its value to decline. Investment bank Lazard Inc. has been helping Sheffield to identify new owners, the people said.

The two top teams in the Championship are automatically promoted to the Premier League at the end of the season. The teams that finish in third to sixth place enter a playoff tournament and the winner gains promotion.

A return to the Premier League would add substantially to Sheffield’s revenues, which were £62 million ($79 million) in the year ending June 2023, according to the club’s last reported set of accounts. The club’s loss widened to £31 million in this period.

Rosen is also a co-founder of of Zanite Acquisition Corp., a US-listed blank-check company that merged in 2022 with a company developing flying taxis.