Walmart Chairman Greg Penner's Family Investment Firm Just Backed a $1.34 Billion Stake in Spain's Valencia CF

Greg Penner, chairman of Walmart and husband of Carrie Penner, granddaughter of Walmart founder Sam Walton, has extended his family's sports investments into European soccer. Penner Sports, the couple's investment vehicle, backed a consortium led by Pitchwise Holdings that acquired a 42% stake in Spanish club Valencia CF, a deal that values the club at 1.2 billion euros, or roughly $1.34 billion. Valencia also received a capital injection of about 100 million euros as part of the transaction.

Penner was not the only prominent name behind the deal. KKR cofounders Henry Kravis, worth an estimated $17.4 billion, and George Roberts, worth about $17.7 billion, also backed the investment through Pitchwise Holdings, which is led on the deal by general partners Ann Rodriguez and Corey Woolfolk.

Valencia joins a sports portfolio Penner has built mostly in American leagues. He acquired controlling ownership of the Denver Broncos in 2022 for $4.65 billion, a franchise now valued at $9.4 billion. He is also the largest minority owner of the Colorado Rockies, a team valued at $1.68 billion, and is reportedly in talks to buy an additional 35% stake in the club.

Penner's move into Valencia fits a broader pattern of ultra-wealthy Americans buying into European soccer in recent years. Jeff Bezos holds a minority stake in Liverpool FC valued at around 1.35 billion pounds, Todd Boehly led the group that bought Chelsea FC for 4.25 billion pounds, and Stanley Kroenke has put roughly $1 billion into building his ownership of Arsenal. Each deal reflects the same calculation driving Penner's: that European soccer clubs, long run more like civic institutions than businesses, still have significant room to grow in value once American-style investment and operating discipline are applied to them.