Sixth Street preparing bid for German football media rights - FT

U.S. investor Sixth Street is among the companies preparing to bid for a portion of the German football league's media and commercial rights, the Financial Times reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The report comes as Germany's soccer governing body is pressing on with plans to sell parts of the Bundesliga media rights for the country's first and second leagues to private investors.

The German football league was initially expected to sell a 20% stake in a newly created company handling the Bundesliga's media rights in October, but pushed it to this year after a lack of consensus among the league clubs.

The business is valued at between 15 billion euros and 18 billion euros, with a 20% stake priced at about 3.6 billion euros ($3.89 billion).

Several private equity funds including CVC, Bain Capital, KKR, EQT, Advent, Blackstone and Bridgepoint came forward in 2022 to express interest in the deal, Reuters had reported.

Sixth Street declined to comment on the Financial Times report, while DFL and Bundesliga did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.