US investor Joseph DaGrosa and business partner Hugo Varela have revealed that they are looking to buy a team in English soccer’s Premier League to kickstart broader plans to build a portfolio of clubs around the world.
Speaking to Forbes, DaGrosa said that Kapital Football Group plans to move “fairly quickly” to “recreate the best aspects” of City Football Group (CFG), the soccer club ownership vehicle that counts Premier League champions Manchester City in its set of eight teams across five continents.
DaGrosa said that the financial impact of the Covid-19 pandemic would provide a window to replicate the CFG model “at a fraction of the cost”, suggesting that there could be an opportunity to acquire clubs at a discount of between 50 and 70 per cent.
“From a macro point of view, we believe football over the long term is a great investment,” he told Forbes. “It’s a particularly opportune time, given what's happened due to the coronavirus and its effects on the global football industry.
“We think that clubs are going to be hard pressed to survive in many cases and there'll be some opportune possibilities to acquire some really strong clubs in terms of on-field performance, but that are financially distressed.”
DaGrosa is chairman of GACP Sports, which in December sold its stake in top-flight French side Girondins de Bordeaux and has previously been linked with Premier League club Newcastle United.
He and Varela told Forbes that Kapital Football Group would start by targeting a mid-table Premier League side to serve as an “anchor club”, before adding ‘three to five’ satellite clubs and ‘up to ten’ academies across Asia, Africa and South America.
“Because of the situation there’ll be clubs in the second tier of the table that are more open to sell than before,” Varela added. “The idea would be to go to a mid-table club and grow from there.”
The desire to replicate CFG’s model is unsurprising given the success of the Abu Dhabi-owned group. The sale of a ten per cent stake late last year to Silicon Valley-based investment firm Silver Lake gave the company a valuation of US$4.8 billion, the biggest for an organisation of its kind.
“Ultimately, we want to build a platform that will lend itself to going public at some point,” DaGrosa continued. “But the idea is to have all the capital in place, allocate approximately two thirds of our capital for acquisitions, and leave a third or more of our capital as dry powder.
“The whole key here is to have dry powder after those initial acquisitions are done to build world class teams at a time when not a lot of other people are investing. Thematically, it's all about playing offence when the rest of the world is playing defence.”
US investor Joseph DaGrosa and business partner Hugo Varela have revealed that they are looking to buy a team in English soccer’s Premier League to kickstart broader plans to build a portfolio of clubs around the world.
Speaking to Forbes, DaGrosa said that Kapital Football Group plans to move “fairly quickly” to “recreate the best aspects” of City Football Group (CFG), the soccer club ownership vehicle that counts Premier League champions Manchester City in its set of eight teams across five continents.
DaGrosa said that the financial impact of the Covid-19 pandemic would provide a window to replicate the CFG model “at a fraction of the cost”, suggesting that there could be an opportunity to acquire clubs at a discount of between 50 and 70 per cent.
“From a macro point of view, we believe football over the long term is a great investment,” he told Forbes. “It’s a particularly opportune time, given what's happened due to the coronavirus and its effects on the global football industry.
“We think that clubs are going to be hard pressed to survive in many cases and there'll be some opportune possibilities to acquire some really strong clubs in terms of on-field performance, but that are financially distressed.”
DaGrosa is chairman of GACP Sports, which in December sold its stake in top-flight French side Girondins de Bordeaux and has previously been linked with Premier League club Newcastle United.
He and Varela told Forbes that Kapital Football Group would start by targeting a mid-table Premier League side to serve as an “anchor club”, before adding ‘three to five’ satellite clubs and ‘up to ten’ academies across Asia, Africa and South America.
“Because of the situation there’ll be clubs in the second tier of the table that are more open to sell than before,” Varela added. “The idea would be to go to a mid-table club and grow from there.”
The desire to replicate CFG’s model is unsurprising given the success of the Abu Dhabi-owned group. The sale of a ten per cent stake late last year to Silicon Valley-based investment firm Silver Lake gave the company a valuation of US$4.8 billion, the biggest for an organisation of its kind.
“Ultimately, we want to build a platform that will lend itself to going public at some point,” DaGrosa continued. “But the idea is to have all the capital in place, allocate approximately two thirds of our capital for acquisitions, and leave a third or more of our capital as dry powder.
“The whole key here is to have dry powder after those initial acquisitions are done to build world class teams at a time when not a lot of other people are investing. Thematically, it's all about playing offence when the rest of the world is playing defence.”
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