CVC Capital Partners, the buyout giant, is serving up a $1bn (£790m) bid to buy a portfolio of tennis assets which includes two of the sport’s most prestigious annual tournaments.
Sky News has learnt that CVC is among the remaining bidders for the Miami Open and Madrid Open, both of which feature the world’s leading male and female tennis players.
Sources close to the process, which is being handled by The Raine Group, said a further round of bids – thought to be worth in the region of $1bn – were due to be submitted later this month.
The assets are currently owned by Endeavor Group Holdings, the global sports and entertainment company headed by the former Hollywood talent agent Ari Emanuel.
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CVC is said to be bidding against Mr Emanuel himself, with the Endeavor chief understood to have engaged bankers at Goldman Sachs to advise him on his offer.
It was unclear on Monday whether Mr Emanuel would seek external financing for his bid.
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Other private equity firms, including EQT Partners and Providence Equity Partners, are also thought to have examined potential bids although it was also unclear whether they were currently part of the auction process.
A number of wealthy individuals are said to have expressed interest in buying individual tournaments on a standalone basis, although Endeavor is expected to pursue a single deal for all of the assets.
If CVC was successful with its bid, it would represent the prolific sports investor’s first foray into owning tournaments in which the world’s leading male players – including Carlos Alcaraz and Alexander Zverev – will feature.
Jannik Sinner, the world number one, will miss both IMG-owned tournaments this year after being handed a three-month ban by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in January, while the former number one Novak Djokovic is likely to omit both from his truncated 2025 schedule.
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The Miami Open is due to begin on 16 March, while its Madrid counterpart gets underway on 21 April.
In addition to the two premier events, both of which carry 1,000 world ranking points for the winners, the IMG portfolio includes the Barcelona Open and the annual pre-Wimbledon tournament at London’s Hurlingham Club.
The ATP Masters 1000 Series and WTA 1000 events are one rung on the tennis hierarchy beneath the four annual Grand Slam events, which are held in Melbourne, Paris, at Wimbledon and in New York.
CVC already has a significant presence in professional tennis, having formed a commercial joint venture with the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) in 2023.
In the first full year of the partnership – in which CVC invested $150m – WTA Ventures saw revenue growth of 24%, in the wake of a new strategy which included the first WTA Finals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
WTA Ventures said the increase put it on track to achieve a long-term objective of tripling commercial revenue during the six years between 2023 and 2029.
The commercial entity is run by Marina Storti, a former executive at Sky, Sky News’ immediate parent company.
One tennis insider said the sport was likely to welcome additional investment in tennis.
The 2025 women’s rankings are headed by Aryna Sabalenka, with Poland’s Iga Swiatek and the American Coco Gauff directly behind her.
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Since taking control of Formula One motor racing in 2006, CVC has established itself as the most prominent private equity investor in sport globally.
It now has interests spanning football, rugby union, cricket and volleyball.
Endeavor decided to sell its tennis assets, along with Frieze, the art business, following an announcement last April that it would be taken private by Silver Lake, the private equity firm.
Since then, New York-listed TKO Group Holdings has struck a deal to buy assets from Endeavor including IMG.
That, transaction, which closed last week, did not include IMG’s full events portfolio, which remains part of Endeavor, according to a company statement.
A spokesman for Endeavor declined to comment, while Mr Emanuel did not respond to an emailed request for comment.
CVC also declined to comment.
