Women’s Tennis Association poised to attract US$150 million private equity investment

The Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) is set to sell a 20% share of its commercial revenue to private equity firm CVC Capital Partners for US$150 million.

As reported by London newspaper The Times, the WTA board reportedly met at the Wimbledon Grand Slam and is in favour of the investment, which is expected to be confirmed at a WTA board meeting at the US Open in September.

While a WTA spokesman told The Times no decision over CVC had been finalised, the British newspaper reports that the deal is “pretty much done”.

In June last year, the UK’s Sky News reported that Luxembourg-based CVC was in talks over a US$600 million deal to combine the WTA and men’s Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). However, The Times reports that the ATP first wants to trigger its ‘One Vision’ strategic plan, which was announced last month and includes a 50-50 profit sharing formula, before completing any negotiations for a private equity deal.

The latest development in the proposed CVC investment comes after the WTA confirmed to The Telegraph last month that Saudi Arabia was looking to host a women’s tennis tour event in the country.

The WTA has refused to rule out the proposal, which would provide a welcome injection of funds into the tour. COVID-19 had already hit the WTA’s income, which was compounded when the organisation suspended its events in China amid fears for the safety of Chinese player Peng Shuai. This included the lucrative WTA Finals in Shenzhen, which offered a US$14 million prize purse when Fleischer has also been advising the controversial breakaway LIV Golf series, which is being funded by Saudi Arabia.

Clarifying the likely sale, the WTA issued a statement confirming that it is not selling a share of the company and the potential opportunity with CVC is around a commercial venture only.

The statement advised “the WTA is a not-for-profit membership corporation and the addition of new member groups is not under consideration.

“We have been in discussions with third parties, including CVC, regarding a potential investment opportunity in a new commercial venture. We have not yet made any decisions as to what we do or do not intend to do in this space.”