Todd Boehly and Mark Walter, co-owners of Chelsea FC, are in the final stages of selling their shares in the club to Clearlake Capital, the private equity firm that holds a majority stake. This deal, reportedly valued at approximately £950 million for their combined shares, would see Boehly and Walter exit their investment with a profit. The transaction values the entire club at around £5 billion.
Discussions regarding this sale have been ongoing for two years but intensified recently due to Mark Walter's need to raise funds to settle with insurers following a US federal investigation into alleged tax fraud. Walter, Boehly, and Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss each own a 12.8% stake in Chelsea, a total of 38.4% through Blueco 22 Holdings. Clearlake Capital, managed by Behdad Eghbali and José E Feliciano, currently holds 61.85% of the shares in 22 Holdco Limited, the UK-based holding company for Chelsea and Ligue 1 side Strasbourg. The sale would increase Clearlake's ownership to nearly 99.9%.
The original £2.5 billion purchase of Chelsea from Roman Abramovich four years ago also included a commitment from the new owners to invest an additional £1.75 billion. Funding for the BlueCo project, as reported, had reached £4.2 billion by the end of June 2025, with more investments since. This sale aligns with the terms of the 2022 takeover, which permitted shareholders to sell their stakes to fellow consortium partners within a 10-year period.
