Private equity firm Arctos Partners has “raised another” $4.1B as the fund-raising shows investor “appetite for sports deals is growing as competition ramps up between private equity firms and Gulf countries like Saudi Arabia and Qatar,” according to Sorkin, Mattu, Warner, Kessler, de la Merced, Hirsch & Livini of the N.Y. TIMES. Since its founding in 2019, the firm has invested in F1, basketball, baseball and soccer clubs, including the Jazz and Fenway Sports Group. Arctos sees itself as “part of a new wave of long-term deal makers” that treat teams “like an asset class.” As sports leagues have “loosened their rules to allow for institutional investors,” firms like Blue Owl and Dynasty Equity said that they are “committed to long-term investments that aren’t tied to economic volatility.” Arctos has “played down” the rising competition. Arctos co-founder Ian Charles told DealBook that sports leagues “put heavy restrictions on allowing state-backed investment,” if they allow them at all. He “declined to say whether Arctos had raised money from sovereign wealth funds,” though the company in a statement said that its “latest fund-raising round included pension funds and ‘global wealth platforms.’” (N.Y. TIMES, 4/2).
