American billionaire businessman Wes Edens is taking the sporting world by storm with ownership of Premier League club Aston Villa and NBA franchise Milwaukee Bucks. Read on as we take a look at his net worth, income and assets.
Who Is Wes Edens?
Wes Edens is a 62-year-old American billionaire businessman and private equity investor, best known for his involvement in ownership of Premier League outfit Aston Villa and NBA franchise Milwaukee Bucks – two teams who have enjoyed meteoric rises in recent years.
He is the co-founder of Fortress Investment Group and founder of New Fortress Energy. The former is an investment management firm based in New York City which manages $44.7 billion worth of assets as of 2023 on behalf of over 1,900 clients worldwide.
New Fortress Energy is a global provider of natural gas-fuelled energy solutions across power generational facilities and more. It has five operational facilities across the Caribbean and United States with more projects underway around the world.
Forbes ranks Edens as the 788th richest person on the planet today. He grew up on a ranch in rural Montana and earned a B.S. degree in finance from Oregon State University.
Wes Edens Net Worth
According to Forbes, Edens is worth an estimated $3.5 billion. He doesn’t fully own Aston Villa himself, instead being a co-owner of association football holding company V Sports alongside fellow billionaire Nassef Sawiris.
V Sports also hold a 46% stake in Portuguese Primera Liga team Vitoria S.C. and are also in discussions to form an MLS team in Las Vegas, under the name ‘Las Vegas Villains.’
In July 2018, Edens and Sawiris purchased a 55% controlling stake worth £30m in the then-Championship side Aston Villa, which addressed all of the club’s financial issues in their entirety following heavy and irresponsible spending from former owner Tony Xia.
A complete overhaul of the club was put into action and they were soon promoted back to the English top-flight, including Villa’s longest ever winning streak of ten games. After promotion, V Sports bought out the remainder of Xia’s shares in the club to become sole owners in August 2019.
As of August 2022, over £360m worth of debt-free shares were injected into the club since the initial purchase. There are plans to increase the club stadium, Villa Park’s capacity from 42,000 to over 50,000 which is set to cost over £100m and will be entirely funded by the two billionaires.
Edens took an interest in NBA ownership almost a decade ago and alongside Marc Lasry, he purchased the Milwaukee Bucks for $550 million – which included promising to keep the team in Wisconsin and build a new arena.
They opened the brand-new Fiserv Forum in 2016. In 2019, Jon Horst – who was appointed as Bucks general manager in 2017 by Edens – won the NBA’s Executive of the Year award as Milwaukee continued to grow as a powerhouse within the league.
In 2020, Forbes stated that the Bucks had the seventh-highest increase in year-over-year value compared to all other 29 NBA teams at a reported $1.58 billion. In 2021, Milwaukee won their first NBA championship since 1971 and they remain a major player in the Eastern Conference.
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