Pitchwise to buy 42% Valencia CF stake, valuing club at €1.25 billion

Pitchwise Holdings will acquire a 42% stake in Valencia CF in a deal that values the Spanish football club at €1.25 billion (£1.09 billion; $1.4 billion), Valencia said on Friday, per Reuters.

The family offices of KKR co-founders George Roberts and Henry Kravis are part of the Pitchwise consortium backing the purchase, according to Financial Times reporting republished on Friday.

The investment would end more than a decade of majority control by Singaporean businessman Peter Lim, whose Meriton Holdings bought a 70.4% stake for about €100 million in 2014, per ESPN and Reuters reporting at the time.

Talk of a change in ownership is not new. In March, Spanish radio network Cadena Cope reported Lim had acknowledged in conversations with Paris Saint-Germain president Nasser Al-Khelaifi that Valencia was up for sale, proposing an asking price of around €400 million for his majority stake; Meriton Holdings responded that such reports were false and that Valencia was not for sale, per the same reporting.

The club itself announced the agreement. Financial terms beyond the valuation were not disclosed in the announcement.