Chinese billionaire Lin Bin buys stake in Miami Dolphins valued at US$12.5 billion: report
Co-founder of electronics giant Xiaomi acquires 1 per cent of holding company whose assets include Hard Rock Stadium, Miami Grand Prix
Chinese-American tech billionaire Lin Bin bought a small stake in the National Football League’s Miami Dolphins at a valuation of US$12.5 billion, a record for a publicly known minority transaction, Sportico reported on Tuesday.
Bin is acquiring a 1 per cent stake in the holding company that owns the Dolphins, Hard Rock Stadium, Formula One’s Miami Grand Prix and part of the Miami Open tennis tournament.
The previous top valuation for a minority transaction was US$10 billion, set in October, when the Koch family bought 10 per cent of the New York Giants.
The NFL’s finance committee approved Bin’s purchase. Approval from league owners is expected to follow at their annual meeting in late March.
Bin, a consumer electronics magnate, is the co-founder and vice-chairman of Xiaomi, a leading smartphone vendor headquartered in Beijing.
With an estimated net worth of US$10.3 billion, Bin ranked No 305 on Tuesday in Forbes’ real-time ranking of the wealthiest people in the world. He worked in engineering at Google and Microsoft after obtaining a master’s degree in computer science from Drexel.