Todd Boehly ‘signs contract to buy Chelsea from Roman Abramovich in huge deal worth up to £4BILLION’
Todd Boehly ‘signs contract to buy Chelsea in a massive deal worth up to £4BILLION, with US businessman just awaiting a green light from the UK government and the Premier League before the deal is completed’
Todd Boehly ‘has put pen to paper on the purchase agreement to buy Chelsea’The gargantuan deal to buy the Premier League side could reach up to £4billion The US tycoon is now said to be just two steps away from completing the deal
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Todd Boehly has formally signed the contract to buy Chelsea in a huge deal potentially worth £4billion, according to reports.
The US tycoon, who part-owns the LA Dodgers and LA Lakers, is now said to be just two steps away from completing the deal, with the rubber-stamp from the British government and the Premier League the last remaining steps.
As reported by the Telegraph, the purchase agreement will be advanced for the Government’s green light following a week of intense and complicated talks.
Boehly is set to take over from current Blues owner Roman Abramovich, a Russian oligarch who was sanctioned by the UK government over his links to Russian president Vladimir Putin, who has invaded Ukraine.
The English top-flight is expected to OK to the takeover, after an owners’ and directors’ test.
However, the Government must first provide a new licence for the sale, according to reports. The club’s operating licence, as it stands, expires on May 31 – with around three weeks left on it.
Todd Boehly has signed the purchase agreement to buy Chelsea in a deal worth up to £4billion
The US tycoon and LA Dodgers part-owner is said to be two steps away from buying the Blues
Boehly and his team signed the contract on Friday after being confirmed as preferred bidder a week ago.
Although the deal is not technically done and dusted, signing the purchase agreement is a hugely important step which commits to sending the seller’s shares to the buyer’s, and sets a date by which the deal must happen.
The 46-year-old is said to have agreed to several ‘anti-Glazer’ clauses – protection for the club against the kind of contentiousness of the American Glazer family’s unpopular ownership of Manchester United since 2005 – and ones which should allay fears over the involvement of California investment firm Clearlake Capital.
The deal must be rubber-stamped by UK’s government and Premier League before completion
Those clauses are believed to prevent the sale of any shares in the Premier League club for a decade and set tough limits on the amount of debt they can take on.
The existence of such terms could provide answers to those, such as British billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who tried to gazump Boehly last week, who questioned if an investment firm should be allowed to become a shareholder in a football team.
It is claimed that Clearlake will own 60 per cent of the club’s shares, although that remains unconfirmed by either Boehly’s consortium, the Raine Group bank managing the sale, or the club itself.
Boehly, 46, is set to take over from outgoing owner Roman Abramovich (pictured), an oligarch who was sanctioned by the British government over links to Russian president Vladimir Putin
Boehly is thought to be paying more than £2.5bn for the club, with a minimum of £1bn in additional spending committed to developing the Stamford Bridge stadium, playing squad, and academy.
It had been reported outgoing owner Abramovich had made a last-ditch demand to raise the asking price by £500m – which the Russian has denied.
It is now claimed that was based on commitments to spend on the club’s infrastructure rather than a money-grab.
