Mikhail Prokhorov hires advisers for sale of Brooklyn Nets

Billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov has hired Evercore Partners to sell the Brooklyn Nets basketball team, a sign that one of Russia's wealthiest businessmen may look to sell-off foreign assets to manage economic woes at home.

Mr Prokhorov bought the Nets and their arena in 2010 for $223m, when the Barclays arena was still under construction. The team and the stadium are now estimated to be worth as much as $2bn.

"[Mr Prokhorov] has owned the team for about five years now, and he has indicated just in the last few days that he is at least listening. Whether or not he ends up selling the team, I'm not sure," said Adam Silver, commissioner of the National Basketball Association.

"If he does sell the team, it's an enormously valuable franchise because it's located in the largest media market in the United States."

Ellen Pinchuk, a spokeswoman for Mr Prokhorov, denied that a Nets sale was imminent.

"As we have said for many months, ownership is always open to listening to offers - that's just good business. There is nothing imminent in terms of a sale of any stake in the team," she said in a statement.

However, a second person with knowledge of the talks said a sale could take place as soon as the end of this current basketball season, with up to 100 per cent of the team being sold.

NBA franchises are increasing in value, partly on the back of the league's new $24bn rights deal with Walt Disney and Time Warner, spread over nine years.

Former Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer paid $2bn for the Los Angeles Clippers, and the Atlanta Hawks is also up for sale.

Mr Prokhorov owns 80 per cent of the Nets, while real estate developer Bruce Ratner owns the remainder and has explored a sale of his minority holding before.

The sale talks were first reported by Bloomberg.

The person with knowledge of the talks suggested that Mr Prokhorov would use the cash to shore up some of his Russian businesses, whose valuations have been hit by western sanctions, the weak rouble and the drop in the oil price.

While Mr Prokhorov rode the wave of the 2008-09 financial crisis, having sold off his 25 per cent holding in Norilsk Nickel to Oleg Deripaska shortly before the crash, he is faring less well in the current downturn.

His stake in Russian fertiliser producer in Uralkali has lost nearly a third of its market value over the past year on the back of an accident at one of its potash mines and the broader fall in the Russian stock market. Mr Prokhorov acquired his 27.8 per cent stake in the company less than 15 months ago for approximately $5bn. The current market valuation for all of Uralkali is just $5.9bn.

Forbes ranked Mr Prokhorov as Russia's 11th richest person in 2014. Bloomberg's Billionaire Index estimates Mr Prokhorov's current net worth at $11.1bn, down from a net worth of $12.5bn at the end of November.

Mr Prokhorov stood for president of Russia against Vladimir Putin as an independent candidate in 2012 but received only 7 per cent of the votes. Shortly after, he announced he would sell-off some of his major business assets, including his stake in gold producer Polyus Gold, to focus on his new political party called the Party of Civic Platform.

Mr Prokhorov owns a 17 per cent stake in Rusal, the aluminium producer, and a controlling stake in media holding company RBC.

© The Financial Times Limited 2015. All rights reserved.
FT and Financial Times are trademarks of the Financial Times Ltd.
Not to be redistributed, copied or modified in any way.
Euro2day.gr is solely responsible for providing this translation and the Financial Times Limited does not accept any liability for the accuracy or quality of the translation