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Apollo Management has lent £80mn to Nottingham Forest Football Club in expensive debt to allow it to pay off other liabilities, in the private capital firm’s first known foray into English Premier League football.
The US group in December provided a three-year term loan at an annual interest rate of 8.75 per cent, according to corporate filings.
Some £55mn of the proceeds have been used to refinance an existing facility owed to Rights and Media Funding Group, a lender that has in the past provided financing to premier league club Everton, while the remaining £25mn is additional working capital.
Apollo’s loan — secured on assets including Nottingham Forest’s stadium — is an example of a growing trend in which big US private capital groups offer high-interest debt to European football clubs in need of cash. Clubs including premier league peer Chelsea and France’s Olympique Lyon have also borrowed from US-based private credit lenders.
Nottingham Forest’s City Ground stadium is due to undergo a redevelopment that will involve one of its stands being demolished and replaced, increasing the overall capacity to 35,000.
Italian clubs Inter Milan and AC Milan have both in recent years been seized by US creditors after defaulting on loans extended to them during periods of financial stress.
Apollo is also currently in talks with Atlético Madrid about taking a stake in Spain’s third-biggest football club.
The discussions emerged from Atlético’s hunt for investors to back an €800mn real estate project next to its stadium. Apollo raised the alternative idea of taking a stake in Atlético Holdco, the company that controls the football club, during talks about the real estate project.
Nottingham Forest, owned by Greek shipping magnate Evangelos Marinakis, last year made an operating loss of £73mn, although player sales worth more than £100mn led to an overall profit of £12.1mn.
During the 2023-2024 Premier League season the club was deducted four points and dropped into the Premier League’s relegation zone after it breached a “profit and sustainability” loss threshold.
The club’s finances are set for a boost this year after it qualified for the Europa League, Europe’s second most prestigious club competition. Forest, which finished seventh in the league last season, has been granted a place due to Crystal Palace’s exclusion from the tournament.
Crystal Palace lost its place because it shared an owner with Olympique Lyon, which has also qualified for the competition.
US businessman John Textor agreed to sell his roughly 45 per cent stake in Crystal Palace last month, in a deal that the club hoped would clear the way for it to participate in the competition next season, but it failed to do so by a March deadline.
US private capital firm Ares has lent over $400mn to Olympique Lyon, with one chunk of the debt attracting interest of more than 19 per cent.
Apollo declined to comment. Nottingham Forest did not respond to a request for comment.
