Serbian media tycoon takes over Southampton football club

Serbian media tycoon takes over Southampton football club
/ Sport Republic
By Eldar Dizdarevic in Sarajevo January 5, 2022

English football club Southampton has changed hands, as Serbian media tycoon Dragan Solak's Sport Republic completed the acquisition of a controlling stake in the club on January 4, both parties have confirmed.  

Southampton didn’t share financial details of the deal but according to reports in the British media, Solak, founder and president of the European telecommunications and media company United Group, bought an 80% stake in Southampton for £100mn (€120mn). 

Sport Republic acquired the stake from Chinese real estate magnate Gao Jisheng, who has controlled the club since 2017.

Katharina Liebherr, who inherited a stake in the club from her billionaire father Markus Liebherr, will hold onto her 20% stake. 

The statement from Southampton said the club had been searching for “the right partner” to take the club forward for two years, after Gao started looking to exit his investment. 

“Today we welcome a new beginning with a new ownership group. We have found partners with ambition for the future, but with a clear understanding of what Southampton stands for and the direction we must go in now. The strategy is to push forward with the plans we have had in place over the last two years, but with their support we can now do this with a renewed focus and speed. Continuity, stability, and clarity of the way forward are equally as important as the new initiatives and ideas we can now bring to the club,” the statement said. 

Solak is a Serbian media tycoon, who first entered business in 1990, set up motion picture production and distribution company VANS. He began building his business empire in 1992 when he moved from Belgrade first to Ljubljana and then to Prague. He founded Serbia Broadband (SBB) which later grew into United Group

He helped the Serbian opposition overthrow Slobodan Milosevic in 2000. In Serbia, he is linked to opposition leader Dragan Djilas, although Solak claims that while they are friends they have never done business together. That is why almost every day some of the pro-regime tabloids, close to President Aleksandar Vucic, mention Solak in a negative context in their articles.

United Group, which has been majority owned by private investment firm BC Partners since March 2019, holds media rights to show the Premier League in much of the Balkans, including Serbia, this season.

However, state rival Telekom Srbija is due to take over the rights from the 2022/23 season in a six-season contract. In Serbia, business clashes between United Group and state-owned Telekom Srbija have escalated into what analysts call Serbia's first cable war.

Solak is also the lead investor behind Sport Republic, a London-based investment firm in the sports and entertainment industry though which Southampton Football Club was acquired. Founded by technology, media and telecoms investor Henrik Kraft and football executive Rasmus Ankersen, the firm says its aim is “to apply proprietary intelligence and data analytics to help sports businesses and sports technology companies reach their full potential”. 

“My partners and I have experience in long-term investments in the sports and entertainment industry and Sport Republic has been founded to combine this expertise and deliver something unique to the market,” Solak was quoted as saying in a press release published by Southampton Football Club and Sport Republic. 

“Southampton has so many of the qualities we have been looking for in a major sports organisation. It has a great management team, excellent talent development, talented teams playing attractive football and a dedicated fan base. We are delighted to be able to complete this acquisition as a first step towards execution of our investment strategy. Southampton will be a cornerstone of the organisation we plan to build.”

Kraft added that “Whilst Southampton is Sport Republic’s first acquisition, we expect more investments to follow over the coming years. Our ambition is to build a portfolio of high influence stakes in football clubs and other sporting assets across the world.”

He added that Sport Republic will also invest in early stage sports technology companies and use its portfolio to accelerate their development.

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