Quick Notes: Billionaire Michael B. Kim is among those interested in buying Nationals per Washington Post
According to the Washington Post, Billionaire Michael B. Kim is among those interested in buying Nationals. Kim whose private equity firm manages more than $25 billion in assets.
Its been a couple of months since the news was broken that the Washington Nationals might be up for sale and during this time there have been a lot of rumors about who could be the new owners of the Nationals. Ted Leonsis, whose Monumental Sports and Entertainment who owns the Washington Capitals, Mystics, and Wizards, emerged as a possible new owner, and then there has been a list of possible, owners. Let's add a new one to the list.
According to the Washington Post, it looks like billionaire Michael B. Kim is among those interested in buying Nationals. From the Washington Post article:
Kim was at Nationals Park on June 29, and his experience could provide an outline of how the process will unfold with other groups over the course of the summer. Kim met with officials both from the business and baseball sides of the operation and also toured the ballpark, which is owned by Events DC, the semipublic tourism and convention company that also owns the Washington Convention Center.
Also according to the Washington Post:
One other group has met with club officials in person, and an in-person meeting with a third group is scheduled for later this month, multiple people familiar with the process said.
According to a Forbes profile, KimMichael Kim cofounded MBK Partners, the Seoul-based private equity firm that bears his initials and manages more than $20 billion in assets. His ING Insurance Korea, which went public in 2017, was the first company wholly owned by a private equity firm to list on the Korean exchange.
In September 2015 his firm's $6.1 billion takeover of Tesco's Korean operation, Homeplus, marked the country's biggest private-equity deal to date. Kim was born in South Korea and was educated in the U.S. from preparatory school onward; he obtained U.S. citizenship along the way. He is an avid art collector and sits on the board of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Theodore Lerner, bought the Nationals from MLB for $450 million in 2006, nearly two years after MLB moved the franchise from Montreal. According to Forbes the value of the Washington Nationals at about $2 billion.
