LONDON (awp/afp) – Two American businessmen, already very involved in professional sport in the United States, and a Swiss billionaire: who are the new owners of Chelsea, whose takeover was announced on Saturday?
. Todd Boehly
Aged 48, Boehly is the figurehead of the group which will buy the London club from the Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich for nearly five billion euros.
The businessman, who graduated from the London School of Economics, first worked for several major American banks, including Citibank, before joining Guggenheim Partners, a financial services giant, in 2001 and then becoming President.
In 2015, this father of three children left Guggenheim Partners to create Eldridge Industries, present in banking, insurance, real estate, technology, media, sport and even catering. Its portfolio of assets includes the American music magazine Billboard, the catalog of songs and musical rights of Bruce Springsteen and Cirque du Soleil.
Boehly is not his first investment in professional sport. In 2013, he bought the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball franchise from Frank McCourt, current owner of Olympique de Marseille, with other investors including Mark Walter, also present in Chelsea’s takeover bid, and the former NBA basketball legend Magic Johnson.
Since then, he has entered the capital of the famous Los Angeles Lakers basketball team, as well as the American professional women’s basketball team of the LA Sparks.
His personal fortune is estimated according to Forbes magazine at 4.5 billion dollars, which ranks him 637th in the world ranking of the greatest fortunes established in 2022 by the American magazine.
Boehly, who wrestled as a teenager, a very popular sport in American high schools, had already tried to buy Chelsea in 2019.
He shares his life between Los Angeles and Connecticut, since 2021 has been the interim president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which awards the Golden Globes each year.
. Mark Walter
In 2012, Mark Walter, 61, was the main architect of the takeover of the Los Angeles Dodgers for more than two billion dollars.
Born in Iowa, this trained lawyer is the big boss of Guggenheim Partners, which he co-founded in the 1990s. This investment fund, present in financial services, insurance or even consulting, estimates its assets at $325 billion.
The company is linked to the famous Guggenheim family, embodiment of the American dream who made their fortune in the mining industry and then in banking and who gave their name to several museums, including the one in New York designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright. .
Walter, married and father of a child, is according to the American press very involved in the defense of the environment.
His personal fortune is estimated according to Forbes magazine at 3.9 billion dollars, the 665th wealth in the world according to the ranking established in 2022 by the American magazine.
. Hansjörg Wyss
Unlike his two main partners, Wyss, 86, is not yet present in professional sport.
This very discreet billionaire is the richest of the three investors with a fortune estimated by Forbes at 5 billion dollars, synonymous with 552nd place in the world ranking established by the American magazine.
A Harvard graduate, Wyss started out in the textile industry, then worked in the automobile (Chrysler) and aeronautics sectors, before creating the American subsidiary of Synthes, a Swiss group specializing in medical equipment (prostheses, implants ) which he will take control of before selling it in 2012 to the American giant Johnson & Johnson for 20 billion dollars.
Established in the United States, Wyss is considered by the Blick newspaper as “the most influential Swiss in the world”. Like his associates, his ties to football are limited, his sport of choice being downhill skiing.
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