Liverpool owner in £4.5bn stake talks with Mittal-backed group
A consortium led by Amit Bhatia and backed by billionaire Lakshmi Mittal is negotiating a minority stake in Liverpool that would value the club at a record £4.5bn, signalling further inflation in the price of elite European sports assets.
Fenway Sports Group (FSG), the Boston-based owner of Liverpool, has confirmed it is in negotiations to sell a significant minority stake in the club to a consortium led by Amit Bhatia. The proposed deal would value the Premier League side at approximately £4.5bn.
Bhatia, the London-born entrepreneur who co-owns Queens Park Rangers, has the financial backing of his father-in-law, Lakshmi Mittal. The Indian steel magnate's family manages assets worth £16bn, removing any doubts about the consortium's capacity to fund a transaction of this scale.
The £4.5bn price tag has surprised industry insiders, as it sets a new benchmark for European football valuations and eclipses recent comparable transactions. Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s purchase of a 25% stake in Manchester United in 2024 valued that club at £3.9bn. Chelsea was sold for £2.5bn four years ago, though that was a distressed sale driven by UK government sanctions against its former owner, Roman Abramovich.
For FSG, which also owns the Boston Red Sox and Pittsburgh Penguins, the potential sale represents a spectacular return on capital. The investment group paid just £300m to take control of Liverpool in 2010. Previous attempts by FSG to secure a minority investor failed to reach an agreement, but the current bid appears to have advanced to a more serious stage.
The depth of Bhatia's commitment to the Liverpool deal was underlined on Tuesday when he resigned as a director of QPR. He had held numerous leadership roles at the London club since investing in 2007. “QPR has been a deeply important part of my life, and of my family’s life … I step back from my formal responsibilities with pride, gratitude and affection,” he said.
FSG addressed the ongoing talks in a statement: “An investment consortium led and managed by Amit Bhatia has expressed interest in making a strategic minority investment in Liverpool Football Club.” The development highlights the continued appetite of ultra-wealthy global investors for the limited supply of elite European sports franchises.
