City Football group that includes Premier League champions Manchester City and ten other clubs have announced that they have secured a loan of $650m (€550m/£470m) which is one of the biggest sports loan deals to increase the global presence and to promote financial growth. The term of this loan is for the next seven years until 2028.
City Football Group has many clubs under them which includes Manchester City, New York City FC, Melbourne City, Girona FC in Spain, Ligue 2 side Troyes, Mumbai City from ISL, Sichuan Jiuniu in China, Club Atletico Torque in Uruguay, Belgium side Lommel SK and Yokohama F. Marinos in Japan.
According to reports, while HSBC and KKR Capital Markets were significant in this deal to arrange and British multinational bank Barclays in this deal in writing the loan off. A CFG of £100 million has also been provided by these firms.
CFG is owned by Abu Dhabi and their main aim is to use this money for infrastructural improvements across all the clubs they own. One of the most prominent reasons for this loan is to build a new stadium for its Major League Soccer franchise New York City FC.
New York City FC has been using the Yankee Stadium which is the home ground for Major League Baseball team New York Yankees since 2015 and no construction plan for the new stadium has been proposed to date.
In 2019, CFG sold a 10% stake to US private equity firm Silver Lake for $500 million. and this deal valued CFG at over $4.8billion. Chinese Media Capital also has a 12-per-cent holding in CFG.
The group also revealed their revenue which is heavily impacted due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. It is reported that the group faced a fall of 14% in 2020 to £544m due to lost ticketing and broadcast income at the beginning of the pandemic.
Manchester City have not announced the financial results for the 2020-21 season which was played behind closed doors and it would have definitely soaked up their matchday revenue.