Since purchasing the majority stake for £210 million four years ago, Gao Jisheng has now agreed to sell it to the sports investment group at a loss of over £100 million. Sport Republic is a London-based investment group founded by Rasmus Ankersen (former director of football at Brentford) and Henrik Kraft, financially backed by Serbian billionaire Dragan Solak.
These men at the helm are all known for their sharp business acumen, and it appears that the plan is to turn Southampton into a multi-model club, similar to the likes of Red Bull. This usually entails a shopping spree of clubs and businesses to build a sports empire and create value from the development and sale of players from within the structure of the organization.
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Rasmus Ankersen spent 6 years as a director of football at Brentford and is known for completely remodeling the club’s transfer and player development operations. He played a massive role in their promotion to the Premier League by leaning heavily on data analysis to identify value in the transfer market. The team was able to profit from identifying high potential players and sold them later to other Premier League and Championship clubs. The likes of Ollie Watkins (sold to Aston Villa for £34 million) and Neal Maupay (£22 million to Brighton) come to mind. This is a crucial skill in Sport Republic’s future as club owners if the firm wants to be successful both on and off the pitch.
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Dragan Solak comes from an affluent family in Serbia and is the son of an influential businessman. He himself has become an industry leader and made a lot of money as a media mogul in south-eastern Europe. In a list released by a Serbian magazine of the 100 richest Serbians, he came third with a fortune worth £1.4 billion. He started out in buying and selling of TV shows and films, then launched a telecom and cable TV business in 2000 – Serbia Broadband (SBB).
After just 5 years of operations, SBB was able to control almost 50% of the local market. The company was sold in 2014 to KKR, an American investment firm, and formed United Group. Until today, Solak sits as the chairman of United Group and the firm has held the streaming rights for almost all of Europe’s top-flight over several countries with an annual turnover of almost £1.7 billion. This is also where Henrik Kraft enters the picture, as he sat on the board of directors of United before quitting in 2016. Kraft is an investment banker and venture capitalist, known for maintaining a low profile and being well-connected within the industry.
In recent times, however, there has been a conflict between Solak and the Serbian government due to his business competing with state-owned media companies. Telekom Srbija, a majority state-owned company with close ties to Serbia’s president started buying rights to the UEFA Champions League, La Liga, Serie A, and now the Premier League using public funds. The media company offered £500 million for exclusive streaming rights of the Premier League across several countries for six seasons. This amount is difficult to justify from a business perspective, which is why it has been speculated that this is more of a political move meant to put pressure on Solak.
There are hard-nosed, savvy men on board and they should elevate Southampton in the Premier League, where they currently sit 12th and have been underperforming for years. Although supporters wonder what their true intentions are, they can rest assured that the club will achieve new heights because of the ambition of Solak and his partners.
