Who owns Aston Villa?
Billionaire pair Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens have been the owners of Aston Villa since July 2018. The NSWE group control the ownership of Aston Villa through their holding company, V Sports.
An initial 55 per cent controlling stake was purchased from Dr Tony Xia in 2018 before buying out the remainder of Xia’s shares, after promotion, to become sole owners in August 2019.
In December 2023, V Sports announced an agreement with American investment firm Atairos to become a minority in the V Sports holding company with a 20 per cent stake.
Who are Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens?
Sawiris was born in Aswan, Egypt but went on to study at the University of Chicago where he received a bachelor’s degree in economics in 1982.
In October 2015, Sawiris acquired a stake in Adidas via his investment company, NNS Holding Sarl Luxembourg and in 2016, he was appointed supervisory director of Adidas in Herzogenaurach, Germany.
The Egyptian has been chairman of Aston Villa since 2018 after investing with Edens, an American billionaire businessman and private equity investor.
The 63-year-old received a Bachelor of Science degree in finance and business administration at Oregon State University in 1984.
Edens has prior experience in sports team ownership after purchasing the Milwaukee Bucks in 2014. As of 2020, the NBA franchise was reported to be worth approximately £1.22 billion after being bought for just £424m just six years previously.
How much were Aston Villa bought for?
The NSWE consortium purchased a 55 per cent controlling stake in Aston Villa while they were in the Championship, worth just £30m.
The Villans had faced cash flow issues under Xia and faced a potential winding-up order by HMRC due to an unpaid £4m tax bill. The introduction of Sawiris and Edens was significant funds injected to address these issues.
After promotion back to the Premier League in 2019, NSWE bought out the remainder of Xia’s shares to become sole owners in August 2019. This was done by taking over a £30m debt owed by Xia to former owner Randy Lerner.
Since the introduction of the new owners, approximately £360m of debt-free funds was injected into the B6 club as of August 2022.
What is Nasef Sawiris and Wes Edens’ net worth?
It is safe to say that the pair have done an excellent job since taking over at Villa Park and are going to be forever adored by the supporters in B6.
It was the Egyptian who opted to bring Unai Emery to the West Midlands, further enhancing his love among Villa fans.
The duo have forever changed the financial landscape of the Villans with Sawiris said to be worth a staggering £7.26bn, sitting as the fourth richest man in Africa.
Despite not matching up to his business partner, Edens’ £2.39bn still makes him one of the richest men in the world, sitting in the top 800 of Forbes’ billionaire list.
The wealth of the Villans’ owners have allowed for larger fees to be spent, with the transfer record being broken five times under NSWE’s watch, with Amadou Onana being the most recent addition.