The owner of Italian side Atalanta and the Boston Celtics NBA team hasn’t ruled himself out of a potential investment play in Liverpool.
US billionaire Stephen Pagliuca, former co-chairman at investment fund Bain Capital, where he now acts as senior advisor, was part of the bidding process for Chelsea last year, reaching the latter stage of the race before losing out to Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital.
Pagliuca, 68, had been one of the names linked with potential investment in Liverpool following the November reveal that Reds owners Fenway Sports Group were actively looking to sell a stake in the club in a bid to recapitalise the business.
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Financial sources close to the matter in the US have told the ECHO that the Liverpool owners are leaning towards a ‘strategic partner’, potentially a media and entertainment firm, that could provide both capital and expertise to scale the business into the future.
But Pagliuca, while loosely linked from early on, was quizzed on his interest in investing in either Liverpool or Manchester United when speaking at the Financial Times Business of Football Summit, also revealing that he had looked at Liverpool as an investment opportunity before FSG acquired the club.
Pagliuca said: “I looked at Liverpool about 15 years ago when they had that situation.
“I can’t talk specifically about any transactions we are working on because of confidentiality agreements but obviously we are aware of those transactions.
“The questions on those transactions in general is what price level do we think is sustainable? Obviously the Chelsea process which received a record price has probably motivated folks to try and monetise clubs that they have owned for a long time, and we are certainly in a period where values have been driven up.
“Anyone who buys a club has to assess the economic opportunity, how much money we have to put in to keep up the quality and what that will cost you. That is what we do in everything we are looking at.”
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