CVC consortium closes in on Serie A stake
October 14, 2020
From Branislav Pekic in Rome
Italy’s Serie A has started exclusive talks with a consortium of private equity funds to sell a 10 per cent stake in the Newco that will manage the TV rights.
The consortium led by CVC and consisting of Advent and FSI beat out competition from Bain-NB Renaissance and Fortress, whose bid arrived only 24 hours before the deadline and ended up not being examined by the 20 Serie A football clubs.
Fifteen of the 20 clubs voted in favour of the bid of the CVC-led consortium, while Napoli, Lazio, Atalanta, Udinese and Verona abstained. The duration of the exclusive negotiations is 3-4 weeks.
The aim of the new initiative of the Italian Football League is manage and market the Italian football TV rights for the next ten years, giving new impetus to Italian football.
CVC-Advent-FSI would be prepared to pay €1.65 billion upfront for MediaCo, which could be listed on the stock exchange in the future. Of this amount, €50 million would be used to launch the League’s TV Channel, according to daily La Repubblica.