Silver Lake Partners, which owns a significant stake in WME | IMG, said in a letter to its investors that the Beverly Hills-based talent agency is about to receive a $1B investment from The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Government of Singapore Investment Fund. The company sent out a release today explaining the deal, saying that GIC,Singapores sovereign wealth fund, willjoin current investors Silver Lake, SoftBank and Fidelity as WME | IMG strategic partners.

This round of investment, as first reported by our sister company Variety, should close mid-month. In the letter, Silver Lake (which has been in invested in the talent agency for a long while) says the investment will allow the buyout of minority partners in the Ultimate Fighting Championship. It also will give WME | IMGs senior management and investors access to cash and provide for acquisitions.

A consortium led by WME | IMG acquired UFC the worlds leading mixed martial arts (MMA) franchise for $4B last year. Larger investors in the deal includedMichael Dells MSD Capital, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Silver Lake but the minority stakeholders (with 10% each) had been the Abu Dhabi government-owned Flash Entertainment, UFC president Dana White and Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta (who founded UFC).

UFC was boughtbyFrank and Lorenzo Fertitta a quarter of a centuryago. The brothers had controlledan 80% stake in the company. They will retain a minority stake moving forward under the terms of the new deal.

Other minority shareholders with 10% each had been the Abu Dhabi government-owned Flash Entertainment as well as another 10% stake for UFC president Dana White.

Half of our business is representation and half is things that we own, WME co-head Ari Emanuel said at Cannes this year. The things we represent we try to expand globally. The UFC now has a global organization to help them We do 900 events and 35,000 concerts a year. We have offices in almost every country. How we then take that and do a complement to all those businesses as a digital offering is our big challenge into the future.

Emanuel revealed that WME | IMGs marketing and advertising business has profits of about $150M.

Silver Lake is the biggest shareholder in WME | IMG. It invested$200M for a 31% stake in 2012 and raised its stake to $750M after the acquisition of IMG.In 2014, WME co-heads Emanuel and Patrick Whitesell bought leading sports agency IMG for $2.4B.In March,Japans Softbank invested $250 million in WME | IMG, valuingthe talent and sports agency at $5.5 billion.

WME | IMG in 2015 acquiredProfessional Bull Riders for an estimated $100M and the Miss Universe pageant. In 2016,WME | IMG and a consortium led by venture capital and private equity firm Sequoia Capital China unveiled a new China-based joint venture. So the agency has continued to branch out through acquisitions.

Original post:
WME | IMG To Receive $1B Investment - Deadline