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Behdad Eghbali, the billionaire co-owner of Chelsea Football Club, paid £56mn for a penthouse in Mayfair, in one of the biggest London property deals of 2024.
The deal, which was concluded last May and disclosed on Friday in a Land Registry filing, marks an upgrade for Eghbali, who previously bought another flat in the same block in 2023 for a reported sum of about £35mn.
US buyers have been a major force in the top end of London’s property market, taking advantage of the strong dollar and weaker demand from other international buyers.
Eghbali is the co-founder of investment firm Clearlake Capital. Clearlake was part of the consortium led by financier Todd Boehly that bought Chelsea FC in 2022 after the UK government forced a sale by the club’s sanctioned oligarch owner Roman Abramovich.
The price of £2.5bn remains the highest paid for a football club, while more than £1bn has since been spent on signing new players as part of an aggressive growth strategy.
Boehly became Chelsea chair after the takeover, but Eghbali has taken an increasingly hands-on approach at the club. The pair are now involved in a power struggle, with each side seeking to buy the other out. Clearlake is Chelsea’s biggest shareholder with a stake of about 62 per cent.
Property records show the previous owner of the £56mn penthouse was Dmitry Rybolovlev, the owner of football club AS Monaco and an art collector.
Rybolovlev was involved in a series of legal cases over claims that art dealer Yves Bouvier overcharged him by some €1bn for a number of artworks, including Salvator Mundi by Leonardo da Vinci. Bouvier has denied any wrongdoing. The two men settled their dispute in 2023.
Rybolovlev lost a case in the US against Sotheby’s, in which he claimed the auction house conspired with Bouvier. Forbes estimates Rybolovlev’s wealth at $6.3bn. He built his fortune through the post-Soviet privatisation of Uralkali, one of Russia’s largest fertiliser producers, though he sold his stake more than a decade ago.
Rybolovlev, who resides in Monaco, bought the Mayfair penthouse in 2019 for £50.5mn, according to UK records. A spokesperson for Rybolovlev declined to comment.
A spokesperson for Eghbali declined to comment.
