American investment fund 777 Partners have been linked with a full takeover of Everton in recent days.
The Miami-based firm have been one of a number of potential investors to have held talks with Everton owner Farhad Moshiri and his representatives in recent months. However, on Wednesday evening a report in the Daily Mail claimed that 777 could acquire the club in a full takeover as early as next week in a £600m deal, dependent on whether or not the club can retain their Premier League status this weekend. 777 Partners declined to comment when approached by the ECHO.
Moshiri has been seeking to sell some of his 94 per cent shareholding in the club in a bid to recapitalise the business, although it is a challenge that has been made more difficult by the uncertainty that remains over both what league the club will be playing in next season and what, if any, punishment is handed down for the alleged breaches of the Premier League's profit and sustainability rules. The latest reports suggest that the Everton owner may well be ready to relinquish his full stake in the club and pass the baton to new owners, just months after telling the club's Fan Advisory Board that the club wasn't for sale.
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There has been interest in investment from New York-based MSP Sports Capital, whose co-founders Jahm Najafi and Jeff Moorad came to watch the January defeat to Southampton. MSP have remained in dialogue with Moshiri and his representatives and talks were said to be moving towards a more advanced stage, according to people familiar with the matter that the ECHO spoke to. MSP, the Mail reported, remained in the race to strike a deal with Moshiri.
In February, as first reported by Bloomberg, 777 Partners were revealed to be another potential investor into the Toffees as they sought to add to their global portfolio of footballing investments that span across Europe and South America. Talks, the ECHO understood, were held in the early months of this year and that interest, according to a report in The Athletic, remains 'serious'.
US firm 777 have a varied portfolio of investments, from sports and entertainment to aviation and financial technology, among other industries. Their modus operandi is to provide growth capital for the businesses that they invest in and to lend expertise to unlock latent value in the markets in which they sit. For Everton, that kind of investment approach chimes with what Moshiri himself had described he was looking for from a minority partner when he spoke to members of Everton's Fan Advisory Board in January.
Moshiri, who claimed that investment was "close", said: "It’s just bringing more expertise in terms of global sponsorship, commercial development. A lot of specialist sport investors have this pool of knowledge, and it’s to secure that for Everton."
The news of 777's interest in Everton came on the back of MSP Sports Capital and it's co-founder Najafi having been linked with a potential £3.1bn bid for Tottenham Hotspur, as reported by the Financial Times at the start of February. Sources in the US have told the ECHO that the focus has remained on Everton and the interest has not waned.
Everton, with a stadium build that still needs to find the rest of its funding and a desire to recapitalise the business after a severely bruising few years financially, sourcing investment to aid the business and bring on board additional expertise to help with their future growth ambitions is key. The club is understood to be valued at between £450m and £500m, although that is a valuation that would be impacted by what happens come the end of this season and just what league the club will be playing in next season.
777, who have more than $6bn in assets under management, already have football investments within their portfolio having followed the trend of being an active US investor in the game post-pandemic.
The Miami-based firm, co-founded in 2015 by Josh Wander and Steve Pasko, both formerly of another Florida investment firm, SuttonPark Capital, have ownership of teams in Italy with Genoa, Vasco de Gama in Brazil, Standard Liege in Belgium, Red Star in France and, most recently, Hertha Berlin in Germany. All those deals closed have been for controlling stakes in the football clubs as they seek to build a multi-club portfolio. They have a minority stake in Spanish side Sevilla.
The deal for Vasco da Gama arrived in February 2022 and saw 777 tap into a Brazilian market that is set to undergo a significant shift as it goes through structural change where a Super League in the country is set to be created with far stronger media revenues deriving from the change. American investment has arrived in Brazilian football by those who already have European team ownership, such as Lyon owner John Textor who acquired Botafogo last year, due to the Brazilian player market being seen as a way to find undervalued talent and introduce them to the European game as a part of a player trading model.
Back in September of last year 777 co-founder Wander, in an interview with French newspaper L'Equipe, sought to clarify the position of 777, stating that they were not an 'investment fund'.
"777 Partners is a company based in Miami, we are a holding – I insist – we are not an investment fund," he said.
"We have six main areas we work in: insurance, aviation, sport, media, and entertainment. We support many companies around the planet but not to investment funds – I am in charge of the business and there are no other external investors.
"What is important in our eyes is not to build a club which generates profit just for the sake of profit. We want clubs that are capable of living and developing over a number of decades."
Having taken a stake in British Basketball League (BBL) team London Lions back in 2018, in December 2021 they paid £7m for a 45 per cent stake in the BBL as they targeted the growth of British basketball's elite competition through investment in infrastructure.
On the company website, 777 lists seven core values of the firm.
"We take full accountability for our actions," it reads. "We act like owners and operate with high integrity in everything we do, seeking to have a positive and enduring impact on the people and communities we serve.
"We are entrepreneurs who serve entrepreneurs. We seek growth and understanding and have the tenacity, ingenuity, and agility to entrepreneurially build businesses and are willing to get our hands dirty in the process.
"We win together with care, consideration, and empathy for the wellbeing of our partners and people by building lasting relationships of trust. We align incentives and operate with shared goals with our investors, employees, and partners."
Last month, 777 were reported, via Bloomberg, to be have held what were described as 'exploratory talks' with Newcastle United co-owner Amanda Staveley's PCP Capital Partners venture capital firm with a view to PCP investing into the US firm's multi-club model, a model that Newcastle are exploring as a growth strategy. According to Bloomberg, potential investment from PCP in 777 may contain funds from the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund, the owners of Newcastle. However, no deal was said to be close and talks were understood to be at a very early stage.
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