Dyal Capital Nears Deal for Stake in Sacramento Kings, WSJ Says

(Bloomberg) -- Dyal Capital is nearing a deal to buy a minority stake in the Sacramento Kings, valuing the National Basketball Association team at $1.5 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

Dyal, a unit of publicly-listed Blue Owl Capital Inc., is buying an almost 5% stake in the team, the newspaper said. The deal could be announced as soon as this week.

The unit agreed last week to buy less than 5% of the Phoenix Suns in a transaction that values that NBA team at $1.55 billion, Bloomberg News reported. Through diversified investments across NBA teams, Dyal is betting valuations will rise driven by media-content rights as technology firms such as Amazon.com Inc. seek to expand offerings of live sports.

Dyal initially plans to raise about $1 billion for the Dyal HomeCourt Partners fund and intends to build a portfolio of minority investments in six different teams, with a goal of eventually doubling that, the Journal said, citing people familiar with the strategy.

Blue Owl shares have risen 11% in the year to date, boosting the New York-based company’s value to about $15.8 billion.

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