Chelsea:Todd Boehly consortium signs £4.25bn agreement to buy club

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Chelsea have confirmed Todd Boehly’s consortium has agreed terms to buy the Premier League club from Roman Abramovich in a £4.25 billion takeover.

Abramovich put the club up for sale in March and was then sanctioned by the UK government following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

A Chelsea statement said the new owners will pay £2.5 billion for the club’s shares. The proceeds will go into a frozen bank account to be donated to charity.

The club added: “The sale is expected to be complete in late May subject to all necessary regulatory approvals. More details will be provided at that time.”

The takeover will require approval from the English football authorities and the UK government.

And the sale of the club is still subject to the Premier League's owners’ and directors’ test.

The agreement means Los Angeles Dodgers co-owner Boehly, who is expected to attend Chelsea’s match against Wolves at Stamford Bridge on Saturday, has won an exceptionally dramatic and public race to buy the Premier League club.

The consortium is led by Boehly but Clearlake Capital, a Californian private equity firm, will own a majority of the shares in Chelsea once the takeover is completed.

Boehly is also backed by Swiss billionaire Hansjorg Wyss and the British property developer Jonathan Goldstein.

The takeover appeared in danger of stalling this week because of fears that Abramovich would renege on his promise to write off the Premier League side’s debt.

But Abramovich, 55, moved to reject those claims on Thursday. A spokesperson said the Russian-Israeli businessman remained “committed” to making sure the proceeds from the sale went “to good causes”.

The spokesperson added the loan funds were subject to European Union sanctions and would be frozen.

Boehly was selected as the preferred buyer for the club after a lengthy bidding process.

Consortiums led by Sir Martin Broughton and Steve Pagliuca were also shortlisted by Raine Group, the New York investment bank running the sale of Chelsea on behalf of Abramovich.

Those consortiums eventually lost out to Boehly, who also faced competition from the British billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe, the majority shareholder of chemical group Ineos, who made a late £4.25 billion bid for the club, which was rejected.



PUKmedia/The Athletic