The English club
Chelsea FC
of Russian tycoon
Roman Abramovich
has announced a sale agreement for about
5.2 billion dollars
(5 billion euros) to a consortium led by the American
Todd Boehly , co-owner of the
Los Angeles Dodgers
baseball club
.
"
Chelsea FC
can confirm that terms have been agreed" for "a new ownership group, led by Todd Boehly", to acquire the club for a reported £4.25bn, it said in a statement.
"The sale is expected to be completed by the end of May, subject to all necessary regulatory approvals," added the London club,
affected by the measures taken against Abramovich
within the Western sanctions on Russia.
The tycoon put
Chelsea
up for sale in March, shortly after receiving sanctions from the British government for the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which included an asset freeze.
After a long negotiation process with several groups,
Boehly
and his partners were chosen by the
Raine
group , a New York bank in charge of the process of selling the latest Champions League winners.
In addition to
Boehly
, the group includes
Dodger
co- owner
Mark Walter
, Swiss billionaire
Hansjorg Wyss
, and US investment firm Clearlake Capital.
"Of the total investment made, 2.5 billion pounds (
3 billion dollars)
will be used to buy the club's shares and said income will be deposited in a frozen British bank account with the intention of giving 100% to charitable causes, as confirmed by
Roman Abramovich
," Chelsea said.
"The approval of the UK government
will be needed
to transfer this proceeds from the frozen UK bank account," it added.
In addition, the new owners commit to an investment of 1,750 million pounds (about 2,200 million dollars) for the benefit of the club.
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