Idan Ofer, the controlling shareholder in Israel Corporation (TASE: ILCO), will make a huge gain on the sale of Spanish football club Atletico Madrid to Apollo Sports Capital, a unit of US asset management firm Apollo (NYSE: APO). Ofer owns a third of the shares in the club. The deal, in which Apollo Sports Capital is buying 55% of Atletico Madrid at a valuation of €2.2 billion, is expected to close in the first quarter of 2026. The management of the club is not expected to change.
Idan Ofer made his investment in Atletico Madrid in 2017-2018, when he bought 32% of the shares for just €100 million. The reports of the club’s sale do not specify how much each shareholder is selling.
At the end of the third quarter, Apollo had nearly $1 trillion in assets under management. The firm has been in existence for thirty years, and in September last year it launched Apollo Sports Capital as a special unit for investment in sport, jointly managed by Rob Givone and Lee Solomon.
Atletico Madrid, the second-largest club in the Spanish capital after Real Madrid, currently sits fourth in La Liga (Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División), the highest division in Spanish football. The club was founded in 1903. It has been champion of La Liga eleven times, and has reached the final of the European Championship twice, in 2014 and 2016, losing both times to Real Madrid.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on November 11, 2025.
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