Wes Edens, who co-owns Aston Villa alongside Nassef Sawiris and the private equity firm Atairos, is one of global sport’s class of empire builders.
As well as Aston Villa, the 63-year-old Montana-born billionaire is the majority shareholder of the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks. He bought his stake at a valuation of around £400m in 2014. Nowadays, the Bucks are worth closer to £3bn, making them one of the world’s most valuable sports franchises.
Wes Edens hopes that his investment in the Premier League will achieve a similar markup. In fact, Villa have already soared in value since the NSWE takeover in 2018. That deal – including debt – valued the then-Championship club at around £100m. In 2025, many analysts value that same club at £700-800m.
Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images
Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images
That might even be a little bit conservative as an appraisal. The latest share issue to Atairos, who now own over 30 per cent of Villa, valued them at closer to £1bn.
That price doesn’t reflect market appetite per se, but it is emblematic of the growth of football clubs as an asset class, especially in the private equity world.
Chart showing Aston Villa's ownership structure divided between Atairos, Wes Edens and Nassef Sawiris
Aston Villa ownership structure Credit: Adam Williams/TBR Football/GRV Media
In football, Edens and Nassef Sawiris established V Sports initially as a multi-club vehicle with plans for global expansion. That has been realised – to an extent.
V Sports also owns stakes in Portuguese Primeira Liga side Vitoria and Real Union, who were recently relegated to the fourth tier of Spanish football. They also have strategic partnerships with J-League side Vissel Kobe and Zed FC in Sawiris’ native Egypt.
TBR Football also understands that, at one stage, there were plans to buy an MLS expansion franchise in Las Vegas, continuing the ‘V’ branding and buying into one of football finance’s most lucrative leagues in one swoop. Whether that is still an active ambition is not known, but there are no pending MLS expansion plans as it stands.
With Villa now regulars in Europe, though not the Champions League next season as they’d hoped, the multi-club dimension of the Edens-Sawiris empire could become more complex given that UEFA has signalled that it is clamping down on dual ownership.
However, one of Edens’ other business ventures illustrates how there is money to be made in the football value chain without owning a club
Wes Edens could block Bordeaux takeover
Edens made his billions in the private equity racket, raising billions in capital from limited partners, investing in private business, creating value, and then flipping them for a profit.
Is he deploying the same business model at Aston Villa? Is the plan to one day make the club profitable and take regular dividends or is it a capital appreciation (buy low, sell high)?
Photo by Kristian Skeie - UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images
Photo by Kristian Skeie – UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images
Either way, he spends an outsized time on day-to-day matters at Villa relative to his other business ventures, which are housed in his Fortress Investment Group.
Among Fortress’s interests is a holding in the credit industry.
One of its clients is historic French side Bordeaux. The six-time Ligue 1 champions were administratively relegated to the fourth tier of French football last summer after declaring bankruptcy.
Incidentally, Liverpool owners Fenway Sports Group (FSG) were in talks to acquire the club before it went bust, but they eventually walked away from the deal.
Now, Bayern Munich legend Oliver Kahn, who is also the Bavarian club’s former CEO, is leading a consortium of investors who have submitted a formal proposal to buy the club.
Court documents show that Edens’ Fortress Investment will, alongside local authority Bordeaux Metropole, effectively have the final sign-off on the deal.
Aston Villa and PSR: Can Edens allocate any more money to the transfer budget?
Back at Villa Park, the club’s qualification for the Europa League, not the Champions League, might be something of a double-edged sword as far as Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR) are concerned.
Villa have lost over £205m across the last two published financial years and have flirted with a breach of Premier League PSR, whose three-year £105m loss limit they have managed to duck under with a number of accountancy sleights of hand.
But with European football comes a new set of rules to follow. UEFA’s loss limit is lower at an upper limit of about £75m, though that is a fluid number depending on whether or not a club is deemed in good financial health.
Charts showing Aston Villa profit and loss data for the eight years, with TBR Football logo
Aston Villa profit-loss chart Credit: Adam Williams/TBR Football/GRV Media
Villa appear to have accepted that they will breach UEFA PSR for the current monitoring period. The good news is that will yield only a modest fine as opposed to a points deduction or transfer ban.
In 2024-25, the cost base will have increased with bonuses related to Champions League participation, but so too will have revenue. They have ended the season with a positive net spend, though some of that was counted in last year’s accounts.
Without Champions League football, it seems unlikely that Edens, Sawiris or Atairos will put more money into Unai Emery’s transfer budget without breaching Premier League PSR, which stipulates that they cannot underwrite losses over £105m.