(Bloomberg) -- Owners of the Chicago Cubs Major League Baseball team are weighing an offer to buy Chelsea Football Club, which is being sold by billionaire Roman Abramovich in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Sky News reported.
Property entrepreneur Nick Candy has also expressed an interest to The Raine Group, the bank overseeing the sale. The lifelong Chelsea fan was exploring forming a consortium to bid for the west London club, Sky reported, citing unidentified sources. The Chicago Cubs is owned by the Ricketts family.
Abramovich, who transformed Chelsea’s fortunes since his 2003 purchase, isn’t among the Russians sanctioned by the U.K. in response to the invasion of Ukraine.
Another potential bidder is the Mixed Martial Arts star Conor McGregor, who earlier this week declared on Twitter an “opening offer” of 1.5 billion pounds ($2 billion), according to Sky.
Hansjoerg Wyss, a Swiss businessman, revealed he received an offer to buy Chelsea earlier this week, along with three other potential buyers. Abramovich’s advisers at the Raine Group are seeking bids of at least 3 billion pounds for the club, Sky News previously reported.
Abramovich made his fortune from dividends and sales of privatized assets acquired from the former Soviet Union, including oil company Sibneft and Aeroflot. Abramovich, who’s worth about $13 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, has loaned Chelsea more than a billion pounds. He won’t ask for any of the loans to be repaid, he said in the statement.
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