Southampton’s club owners have been Sport Republic and Katharina Liebherr since January 2022 when the London-based investment firm acquired an 80 per cent stake in the Saints.
Liebherr retained a 20% ownership stake in Southampton after Sport Republic bought the shares that Gao Jisheng previously held in the south coast club.
Sport Republic, who are financed by Serbian billionaire investor Dragan Solak, was founded by Rasmus Ankersen and Henrik Kraft.
Ankersen also previously became the co-director of football at Brentford in 2015 before stepping down in 2021 to set up the investment fund. Meanwhile, Kraft has a background in strategy consulting and tech investment.
When did Sport Republic become owners of Southampton?
Sport Republic was founded in December 2021 and the firm even became the majority owner of Southampton a month later in January 2022. The investment group paid around £100m to acquire the 80% stake that Jisheng controlled.
Solak, the lead investor of Sport Republic, released a statement following the takeover, which read: “My partners and I have experience in long-term investments in the sports and entertainment industry and Sport Republic has been founded to combine this expertise and deliver something unique to the market.
“Southampton have so many of the qualities we have been looking for in a major sports organisation. It has a great management team, excellent talent development, talented teams playing attractive football and a dedicated fan base.
“We are delighted to be able to complete this acquisition as a first step towards execution of our investment strategy. Southampton will be a cornerstone of the organisation we plan to build.”
The group noted that they would be ‘active’ owners but told fans there wouldn’t be a ‘revolution’, as they believed the club was already well run.
How much is Sport Republic worth?
Serbian-born Solak holds a reported net worth of around £1.4 billion, making the Southampton shareholder the richest man in his home country.
Ankersen also has an estimated worth of around £1.6 billion, while Kraft is thought to be worth even more than that at a mega £2 billion.
That takes the group’s total worth to around £5 billion, which places Southampton among some of the richest clubs throughout English football.
What other sports franchises does Sport Republic own?
Southampton are the crown jewel in the Sport Republic empire, which also owns the Turkish side Goztepe after acquiring a 70 per cent stake in the club in August 2022.
Upon completing the deal, Sport Republic even released a statement confirming their intention to add more football clubs to their portfolio.
It read: “The ambition of all of us at Sport Republic is to build a portfolio of high-influence stakes in football clubs and other sporting assets across the world and then use our wider portfolio of sports technology businesses to accelerate the development of those companies. We can’t wait to get started and begin implementing our strategy with Goztepe.”
The two sister clubs played each other in a pre-season friendly during the summer of 2023, with the score ending 1-1. Additionally, Sport Republic further built up its empire in July 2023 when it acquired majority control in the French side Valenciennes.
Sport Republic has also used its multi-club ownership in the transfer market with Mateusz Lis the first player to join Goztep from Southampton on loan in July 2023.
Southampton’s owners are clearly ambitious and their intentions of creating a multi-club portfolio could be hugely beneficial to the South Coasters.