Bankers Set Up Football Stadia Venture

Two leading City financiers have formed a joint venture with sports marketing
agency IMG with a view to building new stadia for football clubs across Europe.

Robin Saunders, a former banker at West LB, and Lord Jacob Rothschild have
used their investment vehicles – Clearbrook Capital and RIT Capital respectively
– to buy Bastion, a small stadium management business.

Through Bastion the two bankers have formed a deal with IMG to take advantage
of the current raft of clubs across Europe looking to invest in new stadia to
bolster their revenue streams.

Andrew Hempel, formerly chief executive of IMG Europe, has been hired to run
the venture which is approaching clubs with the offer of funding the building of
the new stadia in return for ownership of a fifth of the seats for a 20-year
contract.

Saunders in particular has a background in stadium financing having worked on
securing more than £400m of the required sum to rebuild Wembley Stadium during
her time at West LB.

Liverpool, West Ham and Tottenham Hotspur are amongst a host of clubs
considering building new stadiums to increase their crowd capacities.