A&O Shearman, Latham & Watkins, Orrick, Northridge, Cleary Gottlieb, and Clifford Chance advise on Liverpool Football Club’s minority stake sale.

Fenway Sports Group (FSG) has entered into a definitive agreement for the sale of a minority equity stake in Liverpool F.C. to 1892 Holdings, a consortium led and managed by Amit Bhatia, with investments from Amit Bhatia and the Mittal Family Trusts, K5 Sports (a K5 Global Fund), with Jeff Bezos as the lead investor in the K5 Sports fund, and EE Capital, the family office of Elaine and Eduardo Saverin. FSG will retain majority ownership and operational control of Liverpool F.C. Closing is subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.

A&O Shearman advised Fenway Sports Group and Liverpool F.C. on the transaction.

The team was led by partners Roger Morscheiser and Christopher Glenn in New York, and Nick Withers in London. Associates Andrew Calamari, Matt Steinhaus, and Daniel Senior worked alongside the partners to support the deal.

Tax advice was provided by partners Ryan Bray and Austin Jones.

Global co-head of compensation, employment, and governance John Cannon, specialized practice lawyer Max Bradley, and associate Dov Fiskus provided advice on compensation, employment, pensions, and governance.IP/data protection advice was provided by partner JB Betker and senior associate Magnus Yadi. Antitrust/FDI advice was provided by partners Matthew Readings, Jonathan Cheng, and counsel Andrew Fincham. Partners Alan Goudiss and Alice Englehart provided litigation advice. Partner Andrew Denny and associate Khush Kotecha advised on football regulatory matters.

Latham & Watkins acted as principal legal counsel to 1892 Holdings, the consortium acquiring the strategic minority equity stake in Liverpool F.C.

The team across the UK and US was led jointly by London partners Ed Barnett and Hector Sants, Washington, D.C. partner Nick Luongo, and New York partner Matt Eisler, with London sports partner Patrick Mitchell, Washington, D.C. partner Brad Guest, and associates Ryan Martin and Dustin Davis.

Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe advised K5 Global.

The team was led by Max Cantor and included Ken Wiggins, Sam Ramos, Santi Assalini, David Valk, Ken Rasamny, Shawn Atkinson, Patrick Driscoll, Pete Elias, John Narducci, SeoJung Park, Jonathan Rosen, Stefan Schultes-Schnitzlein, Carsten Engelings, Felicity Blackburn, Victoria Newbold, Amy Ray, Kristin Petersen, Matt Janosko and Neetu Ahlawat.

Northridge supported Orrick on UK sports regulatory matters.

Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton served as legal counsel to the K5 Sports fund and its lead investor, Jeff Bezos.

Clifford Chance advised EE Capital, the family office of Elaine and Eduardo Saverin and an investor in 1892 Holdings.

The team was led by Partners Neil Barlow and Eric Schaffer, with Katherine Moir and Todd Lowther. The team also included Katerina Papacosma, Austin Johnson, Ariel Cohen, Antonio Folgore, Jamie Andrew, Xue Zhang, Ira Aghai, Kieran Mathiak, Daryl Liu, Syafiq Poh, Rachel Tong and Amanda Teh.