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City Football Group, owner of 10 football clubs including Manchester City, has divested its minority stake in Japanese side Yokohama F Marinos to carmaker Nissan.
The J1 League outfit will remain a CFG partner club but is now wholly owned by Nissan, who founded them as a works team in the 1970s.
It comes six months after Nissan ceased an 11-year global sponsorship of City Football Group, in what was reported to be a cost-cutting measure. The move also follows CFG selling its majority stake in Mumbai City in December last year.
A statement from Yokohama F Marinos said: “We hereby announce that all shares of our company held by City Football Group (CFG), one of the shareholders of Yokohama F. Marinos Co., Ltd., will be transferred to Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.
“CFG has provided wide-ranging support for our club’s management and operations as a shareholder to date. Moving forward, Yokohama F. Marinos and CFG will continue their relationship as partner clubs.
“We will continue to work closely with CFG to strengthen the top team, while also contributing to the growth of the club’s partnerships and sponsorships.
“Furthermore, as part of our medium- to long-term growth strategy, we will work to strengthen our shareholder base in order to further stabilize our management foundation and improve our financial sustainability.”
Eight-time Premier League winners Manchester City were the foundational team in CFG, the leading multi-club network in football which was established in 2013.
It quickly acquired clubs in New York City, Melbourne and then Yokohama, and has subsequently added teams in Uruguay, Spain, China, Belgium, France and Brazil.
City Football Group is majority owned by Abu Dhabi’s Sheikh Mansour, named one of the most powerful people in football by City AM earlier this month, and minority owned by US private equity firm Silver Lake.
