Two-time NBA champion Kevin Durant has develop into an investor in UEFA Champions League staff Paris Saint-Germain and can function a guide on the membership’s potential plans to develop into basketball, based on The Athletic. Durant’s funding in Paris Saint-Germain comes through the enlargement of Durant’s current partnership with Qatar Sports activities Investments (QSI), which has expressed curiosity in launching a basketball staff in Paris, coinciding with the NBA’s exploration of enlargement to Europe.
Durant had reportedly made a earlier funding in Paris Saint-Germain, a single-digit million shareholding, through his funding agency Boardroom. Nonetheless, personal fairness agency Arctos then bought a 12.5% stake within the staff in December 2023, which Durant has now exited to take a direct minority stake that’s roughly the identical dimension as his earlier funding. As Durant’s exit from the stake acquired through Arctos is taken up through different means from the fund, Arctos has not diluted and its stake stays 12.5 p.c.
As a part of the partnership between Boardroom and QSI (which incorporates industrial, funding, and media content material initiatives), Durant will even seek the advice of PSG on their multi-sport technique, “together with potential plans in basketball.” Paris Saint-Germain presently has males’s and girls’s soccer, youth soccer, handball and judo in its sports activities portfolio.
“It’s an honour to accomplice with QSI and be a shareholder in Paris Saint-Germain — a membership and a metropolis that’s so near my coronary heart,” Durant mentioned. “This membership has massive plans forward and I can not wait to be part of the following part of development and to discover new funding alternatives with QSI.”
The Athletic reported in March that NBA commissioner Adam Silver plans to pitch the define of a plan to develop the NBA to Europe to the league’s Board of Governors. A potential league would come with groups in cities similar to London and Paris. A European NBA league might come through a collaboration with the EuroLeague, which notably already features a Paris basketball staff.
