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Sources: Man City owners exploiting £514m fund as details of seven-year deal revealed
Man City parent company City Football Group have part-funded the acquisition of Brazilian club Bahia with the help of a huge loan, Football Insider has learned.
The $650m loan – which is worth about £514m at the current exchange rate and underwritten by several financial groups – is one of the biggest debt deals ever put together in football.
The seven-year arrangement, news of which emerged in 2021, will be used to fund various infrastructure projects at Bahia as well as at a number of City Football Group‘s other outposts.
City Football Group have set aside £80m for new signings at Bahia, with a further £70m understood to be split between paying off the club’s debts and funding new capital expenditure plans.
The takeover of the Brazilian club was legally finalised earlier this week, although City Football Group have effectively been in charge since the deal was completed several months ago.
The historic Salvador-based side are one of Brazil’s most well-supported clubs and are arguably the group’s most high-profile acquisition to date.
The multi-club network recorded revenue of £705m in 2021-22, with the bulk of that coming from Man City, who remain the mothership of the operation.
City Football Group are taking steps to diversify turnover, however, and their lifetime revenue from clubs besides Man City stood at £494m at the end of the last financial year.
That figure will rise considerably when the revenue of Bahia, who were promoted to the Brazilian top flight last season averaging attendances of 20,000, begins to register on the balance sheet.
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