Mindy Kaling: US Office star is among Swansea City owners
- Published
The American consortium which owns Swansea City includes an actress who starred in The Office and a film director who co-owns an NFL franchise, BBC Sport Wales can reveal.
Steve Kaplan and Jason Levien led the 68% controlling stake buy-out in 2016.
The consortium included another 25 investors, including Mindy Kaling, star of the American version of The Office and her own show, the Mindy Project.
It also featured filmmaker and Los Angeles Rams co-owner Chip Rosenbloom.
The identities of those investing in the consortium, Swansea Football LLC, was not disclosed when the takeover was completed in 2017.
But documents seen by BBC Sport Wales show how much each investor contributed to the consortium.
Swans worth £110m at time of sale
At the time of the takeover, Kaling held 1% of the consortium's controlling stake, Rosenbloom had 6.3% and former United States captain and Everton player Landon Donovan had 0.4%.
The club was valued at £110m at the time of the sale, making the purchase of the 68% controlling stake worth almost £75m.
Kaplan and Levien are the largest shareholders in the group, with almost 30% of the consortium's shareholding between them.
Kaplan, the 59-year-old head of an investment company and vice-chairman of basketball franchise Memphis Grizzlies, provided the bulk of the money for the takeover.
Co-owner Levien, 46, is the managing general partner of Major League Soccer team DC United and the Swans' second largest shareholder in the consortium.
The group's joint third-highest stakeholders are Romie Chaudhari and Robert Hernreich and, because both have a stake greater than 5% in the club itself, they were appointed directors of the Swansea board in September 2016.
Swansea City Supporters Trust retained its 21.1% stake in the club, while chairman Huw Jenkins and director Martin Morgan each kept 5% shareholdings and vice-chairman Leigh Dineen kept a 1% stake.
Swansea Football LLC: Jeffrey Aronson, Kerry Assil, Laurence Berg, Romie Chaudhari, Landon Donovan, Robert Hernreich, Mindy Kaling, Kevin Knight, David Ott, Chip Rosenbloom, Ian Schapiro, Edward Shapiro, David Snyderman, Andris Upitis, Dr John Zvijak, Jed Kaplan, George Leiva, Curtis Lane, James Ford, Michael Harmon, Brian Wersdesheim, Michael Singer, Cliff Singer, Matthew Walsh, Steven Yi.
- Published21 July 2016