US investment fund 777 Partners are close to agreeing Everton takeover deal
- American investment fund are close to agreeing a stunning takeover at the club
- 777 already own a number of football teams and a British basketball team
- Listen to the latest episode of Mail Sport’s podcast It’s All Kicking Off
American investment fund 777 Partners are close to agreeing a stunning deal to takeover Everton.
Back in May, Mail Sport revealed that 777 Partners had been leading the race to buy the Toffees but that their £600m offer had not been enough to convince unpopular owner Farhad Moshiri to sell.
Rival American outfit MSP Sports Capital then became confident that they could complete a deal for the club but that also fell through last month.
In the wake of MSP Sports Capital pulling out the race, 777 Partners are now close to finalising a deal to buy the Merseyside club.
Mail Sport reported that, in May, 777 grew unsure of their investment as they demanded assurances that Everton would be in the Premier League this year.
Everton are close to completing a historic sale of the club to US investment firm 777 Partners
777 Partners – led by Josh Wander (pictured) – have had a long-standing interest in the Toffees
According a Liverpool Echo report from April, 777 has more than $6billion in assets under management. That number would skyrocket if they added Everton to their portfolio.
Based in Miami, Florida, 777 was founded in 2015 and is led by managing partners Steven Pasko and Josh Wander.
The company’s website describes its mission as ‘build[ing] a self-sufficient company that is not dependent on banks and third party investors in order to overcome the inherent compromises they saw in the prevailing model.’
And while 777 has built a formidable fleet of sports franchises (more on that later), it’s also involved in other sectors.
The company lists aviation as being in its portfolio, while insurance and fintech are part of that group as well.
The American investment group, whose co-founders Jahm Najafi and Jeffrey Moorad have attended matches at Goodison Park, signed an exclusivity agreement with Everton earlier this summer and aimed to make an £150million investment in the club.
Current owner Farhad Moshiri has become an unpopular figure at the club in recent years
But that complicated deal, which included two thirds of the investment going towards owner Farhad Moshiri’s subsidiary company Everton Stadium Development Co, is now dead after an existing lender thought the deal would not see the club receive enough cash in return for equity.
The New York firm are said to be still proceeding with the £100m loan to the stadium company but Everton will receive no hard windfall from MSP.
Meanwhile, 777 Partners already own Bundesliga side Hertha Berlin, Italian club Genoa, Brazilian side Vasco da Gama, Belgian outfit Standard Liege, and French third-tier side Red Star.
Additionally, the company owns a piece of Sevilla and purchased British basketball club the London Lions in 2021, before taking a 45 percent stake in the British Basketball League a year later.
It also agreed to a five-year deal to take control of the Melbourne Victory in January.
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