Russian billionaire – owner of the National Basketball Association (NBA) Brooklyn Nets Mikhail Prokhorov put up for sale 49% of its shares, Prokhorov himself told the R-Sport agency. “49% of Brooklyn shares are on sale, while this process is going on, we are looking for a buyer,” Prokhorov said.
Prokhorov’s spokesman confirmed the information, noting that the businessman decided to sell a minority stake in Brooklyn Nets at the end of 2016. [клубу] Nets and will remain the majority owner of the team, ”said Prokhorov in December last year.
Last year Brooklyn Nets was estimated at $ 875 million, its arena – Barclays Center in Brooklyn – at $ 825 million. Accordingly, the stake to be sold may cost about $ 429 million. The businessman’s representative did not answer questions about potential buyers and the amount of the transaction. Brooklyn Nets and the NBA did not respond to Vedomosti’s inquiries.
Prokhorov’s Onexim Sports & Entertainment bought 80% of the then New Jersey Nets and 45% of their new arena in 2010 for $ 223 million. Thus, the Russian billionaire became the first foreign owner of the NBA team. In 2012, Prokhorov transferred the team to Brooklyn and renamed it Brooklyn Nets.
In the 2016/17 regular season, Brooklyn Nets have won just 20 wins in 82 games. This is the worst performance in the NBA and the team’s third consecutive disastrous season, writes ABC News.
Two years ago, in the spring of 2015, Prokhorov already said that he wanted to sell a minority stake in Brooklyn Nets. At that time, 20% of the club’s shares belonged to the American businessman Bruce Ratner. However, in the end, Prokhorov bought out Ratner’s stake and consolidated 100% of the shares.
In December 2016, it became known that Prokhorov again wanted to sell the club and that he had hired Allen & Co. for this purpose. Neither the price nor the size of the package sold were disclosed. The industry publication Nets Daily already wrote that Prokhorov was ready to part with 49% of the club’s shares, while other assets of Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment, including the Barclays Center arena, would remain outside the perimeter of the deal.
Since the summer of 2016, after a series of searches by the FSB in the structures of the Onexim company, Prokhorov has been selling off Russian assets. At that time, Onexim owned assets in the mining and metallurgical industry (UC Rusal, Uralkali), finance (insurance company Soglasie, banks Renaissance Capital, Renaissance Credit, MFC), energy (Quadra) , real estate (OPIN), media (RBK, Snob). Since then, shares in Uralkali, UC Rusal and OPIN have been sold, and the sale of the RBC media holding is being prepared.
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