PREMIER LEAGUE
Who is Liverpool FC’s owner? What is his net worth?
Liverpool have had different American owners since 2007. The current owners have been in charge for 11 years, after buying the club in 2010.
Liverpool are one of seven Premier League clubs which are either owned completely by North American companies or run by US individuals that hold a controlling stake.
Fenway Sports Group Holdings are the current owners of Liverpool FC - but they were not the first US company to have a stake in the club. In February 2007, George Gillett and Tom Hicks bought out club shareholders in a deal worth £435 million, securing a 50% stake of shares valued at £5,000. Gillett and Hicks’ relationship with Liverpool lasted until October 2010 when the club became the proprietary of Boston-based Fenway Sports Group Holdings through subsidiary New England Sports Ventures (NESV), who are believed to have bought the club for £300M.
FSG takeover at Anfield
Fenway Sports Group Holdings was founded in 2001 by businessman John William Henry II and Tom Werner - the latter is the company’s chairman. FSG have a number of other interests in sport - they also own MLB teams the Boston Red Sox and the Virginia-based Salem Red Sox. They also own sports venues including Fenway Park and Anfield.
John W. Henry was born in Quincy, Illinois and is 72 years old. He inherited his family’s soybean business in Arkansas but amassed his fortune elsewhere - working as a trader on the US stock market, buying and selling agricultural commodities. Henry became a billionaire in 2006 but after a few lean years in which FSG had to ride out the 2007-8 financial crisis, the trading arm was wound down at the end of 2012.
Henry has continued to diversify and bought the prestigious Boston Globe newspaper for $70 million in October 2013. Today, his net worth is calculated to be $3.6 billion and he is currently 318th on the Forbes 400 list of the most wealthy Americans in 2021.
In April this year, private equity firm RedBird Capital Partners purchased an 11% stake in Fenway Sports Group for a reported $750 million. NBA superstar LeBron James holds a 2% stake in Liverpool which is now valued at $43 million.