German professional football’s governing body is launching a third attempt to sell a stake in the league’s media rights worth as much as €1 billion ($1.1 billion) to private equity investors, according to people familiar with the matter.
The 36 clubs in the top two divisions will vote in mid-December on whether to hold an auction, DFL Deutsche Fussball Liga GmbH said late Tuesday, confirming an earlier report by Bloomberg News.
A previous proposal in May failed to win the necessary two thirds majority from the clubs. In that attempt, buyout firms CVC Capital Partners, Blackstone Inc. and Advent International were among suitors that bid as much as €1.85 billion for a 12.5% stake in the subsidiary housing Bundesliga broadcasting rights.
This time around, the league is likely to use a reverse auction, asking private equity firms how big a stake they would seek for an investment of up to €1 billion in the entity, people familiar with the matter said, declining to be identified because the information is private. They added such a stake will likely have to be below 10%.
A stake sale, if agreed on, would bolster the league’s finances as well as its visibility among viewers. The renewed effort will primarily be used by the league to boost revenues from broadcasting and marketing instead of “flooding the market with money,” the DFL said.
Using the proceeds to pay a special dividend to clubs, a feature of the last auction, is off the table this time around. The step addresses previous criticism from smaller, mainly second-league clubs that were concerned it would disproportionately benefit the bigger teams. The clubs will still receive financial compensation for giving up a small percentage of the broadcasting rights.
A stake sale in the DFL broadcasting vehicle would have to conclude well before April, when the league begins the sale of international and domestic broadcasting rights for the 2025-2026 to 2028-2029 seasons.
DFL in 2021 walked away from an earlier attempt to sell a holding in the broadcast entity.
(Updates with confirmation and DFL statements in paragraph two, five and six)
