Mike Repole
Rob Carr | fake pictures
Another buyer is interested in joining a group of owners to buy the New York Mets.
Bodyarmor founder Mike Repole is part of the group trying to buy the equipment from the Fred Wilpon family, a person close to the situation confirmed to CNBC. The group is led by former Major League Baseball star Alex Rodríguez and actress and singer Jennifer López.
Action Network’s Darren Rovell first reported Repole’s involvement in the ownership group.
This is the second time that Repole has shown interest in the Mets. The Queens native also wanted to buy the franchise in 2011 when the Mets were worth approximately $ 850 million. According to Forbes, the Mets are currently valued at more than $ 2 billion.
Steve Cohen, the billionaire hedge fund manager, previously made an offer to buy approximately 80% of the Mets, but the deal fell apart. With Cohen out, for now, reports of Rodríguez and López’s interest in the team emerged in March.
Philadelphia 76ers owner Josh Harris and Apollo Global Management founder Josh Harris, who also recently completed a deal to buy shares of the Pittsburgh Steelers in the National Football League, is also an interested buyer.
Wilpon had repurchased a larger portion of the team in March 2019, and Sterling Equities, which Wilpon co-founded, agreed to repurchase a 12% stake in the organization. That interest was sold to help finance a settlement for victims of Bernard Madoff’s pyramid scheme.
Wilpon and Saul Katz, co-founder of Sterling Equities and president of the Mets, were sued in 2010 by Irving Picard, the trustee representing Madoff’s victims, alleging that the couple should have been aware of the plan. The lawsuit was settled in 2012 for $ 162 million and then reduced to $ 61 million.
Repole sold the famous beverage maker Glaceau in 2007 for $ 4.1 billion. In 2014, he teamed up with basketball icon Bryant, who invested $ 6 million in Bodyarmor. Bryant converted that investment to approximately $ 200 million (on paper) when Coca-Cola acquired a minority interest in 2018.
CNBC’s Jessica Golden contributed to this report.
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