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Chelsea shareholders Mark Walter and Todd Boehly are in talks to sell their stakes to majority owner Clearlake Capital. The potential deal aims to resolve tensions within the ownership group and comes amid regulatory scrutiny of Walter’s business empire.

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Chelsea shareholders Mark Walter and Todd Boehly in talks to sell their stakes to Clearlake

Negotiations come amid clashes over strategy and as Walter’s business empire faces scrutiny from regulators

Todd Boehly, left, and Mark Walter are part of the ownership group that acquired Chelsea FC from Roman Abramovich in 2022 for £2.5bn © Robbie Jay Barratt/AMA/Getty Images

US financiers Todd Boehly and Mark Walter are in talks to sell their stakes in Chelsea Football Club to majority owner Clearlake Capital, according to people briefed on the matter. 

Any deal would potentially help to resolve long-running tensions among the Premier League club’s ownership group, which acquired it for £2.5bn in 2022 when Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich was forced to sell in the wake of sanctions imposed on him following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Since buying Chelsea, Boehly and Walter’s side of the consortium has clashed with Clearlake over strategy. While Clearlake owns more than 60 per cent of Chelsea, it shares joint control and equal governance of Chelsea FC with Boehly, who chairs the club. 

The talks come after years of on-and-off negotiations between the two sides, but it was not yet certain that a deal would be struck, the people said. 

The revived negotiations also come as Walter has sought to sell other high-profile assets as his business empire faces regulatory scrutiny.

US prosecutors are probing Walter’s insurance companies, which were the foundation for his swift rise on Wall Street, following disclosures that revealed insurers he controlled lent to related parties without disclosing links to those loans. The insurers are now rushing to sell their affiliated investments or pay down these loans.

Last week, Walter agreed to sell the Los Angeles Lakers for $12.5bn to former Disney chief Bob Iger and venture capitalist Joshua Kushner less than a year after he acquired the basketball team.

Spokespeople for Walter and Boehly did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Chelsea and Clearlake declined to comment.

This is a developing story