Liverpool principal owner John Henry has seen his fortune increase by around £600m in the last 12 months, according to the latest Forbes billionaires ranking.
The US magazine published its annual rich list on Tuesday, with the 2022 global rankings placing the Fenway Sports Group owner, 72, as the 822nd richest man in the world with a net worth of $3.6bn (£2.75bn), a figure up from the $2.8bn (£2.14bn) he was worth in the 2021 list. That rise was enough to see him climb 289 places from the position he held in 2021 of 1,111.
Henry, who made his fortune in commodities trading in the 1980s from his trading firm J.W. Henry & Co, made the leap into sports ownership in the 1989 when purchasing the Minor League Baseball team the Tucson Toros. He sold that team in 1990 but would return as a team owner in 1999 when he purchased the Florida Marlins baseball team. Henry would go on to sell the Marlins in 2002 to pave the way for a takeover of the Boston Red Sox with his New England Sports Ventures business (now FSG).
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Liverpool arrived in the FSG portfolio in 2010 and Henry and co added another professional team, the Pittsburgh Penguins NHL team in November of last year to take the total value of the FSG empire, which also includes a 50 per cent shareholding in the RFK Racing NASCAR team and other holdings such as Fenway Sports Management and Fenway Sports Group Real Estate, to close on $10bn, making it the third biggest sporting empire in the world, according to Forbes.
The company has grown and the addition of the Penguins last year in a deal that was valued at around $900m, followed on from a significant influx of capital into the business in March 2021 as RedBird Capital Partners, the private equity firm led by experienced financier Gerry Cardinale, acquired 11 per cent of the overall FSG empire in a $750m deal. That deal also saw basketball icon LeBron James convert the two per cent in Liverpool that he had held since 2012 into one per cent of FSG's whole operation, with James and business partner Maverick Carter becoming FSG partners. FSG and RedBird subsequently invested capital into James and Carter's blossoming SpringHill Entertainment company, a deal that also saw Liverpool kit suppliers Nike involved, as well as Epic Games.
Also appearing on the Forbes money list is Liverpool chairman Tom Werner, whose net worth stands at $1.6bn (£1.22bn). Werner, who also serves as FSG chairman, appeared at 1,818 on the billionaires list, his first appearance. Werner, who co-founded FSG with Henry, made his fortune in television and created the Carsey-Werner Company in 1981, with Werner's company responsible for popular US shows Roseanne, Third Rock From the Sun and That 70's Show.
A number of smaller FSG partners also feature on the money list. Seth Klarman ($1.5bn), Ted Alfond and Bill Alfond ($2.8bn) and Richard Warke ($1.1bn) all appearing on the 2,668 strong list.
Henry's personal fortune isn't enough to put him among the top 10 richest sports team owners in the world, a list headed by former Microsoft CEO and owner of the Los Angeles Clippers NBA franchise. Ballmer is worth a $91.4m, while Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert, who has been linked with being part of a consortium to buy Chelsea, appears at number five on the list with a net worth of $22bn, although that has more than halved from where it was last year.
