Germany's DFL to kick off Bundesliga media rights sale in October - sources

MUNICH : Germany's soccer governing body is due to meet a second group of private equity investors on Monday before launching the sale of a $3.6 billion stake in the Bundesliga's media rights business towards the end of October, four sources told Reuters.

    Deutsche Fussball Liga (DFL) met with a first set of buyout funds including CVC Capital Partners earlier this week and is looking to wrap up meetings with the remaining bidders next week, the sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

    Several heavyweight private equity funds have come forward to express interest in the Bundesliga rights race, including Bain Capital, KKR, EQT, Advent, Silver Lake, Blackstone and Bridgepoint, but the auction is only expected to kick off in late October, the sources said.

    The discussions will help DFL gauge the level of interest in both Bundesliga's domestic and international media rights and the size of the stake on offer, which could be anywhere between 10 per cent and 20 per cent, they said.

    A spokesperson for the DFL said the option of a "strategic partnership that brings growth capital and know-how" was being examined, adding "a formal sales process is currently being set up for this."

EQT, CVC, KKR, Advent and Blackstone declined to comment, while Bain, Silver Lake and Bridgepoint were not immediately available for comment.

    Bundesliga's media rights business is valued at between 15 billion and 18 billion euros, with a 20 per cent stake priced at about 3.6 billion euros ($3.6 billion), the sources said.

This is in line with the valuation of similar deals by Spain's La Liga and France's Ligue 1, where CVC recently invested, the sources said.

National soccer leagues in Europe are increasingly eyeing private equity