Mark Walter’s company TWG Global defends Dodgers financing and Lakers sale
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- Dodgers holding company TWG Global pushes back against allegations of financial impropriety tied to insurance transactions, insisting no policyholders were harmed and that regulators previously cleared the team’s 2012 purchase.
- Amid federal and state probes and a record sale of his controlling Lakers stake at a $12.5-billion valuation, Mark Walter’s camp emphasizes the Dodgers’ robust revenues and says player payroll obligations remain fully funded.
- TWG Global reiterates the Dodgers are not for sale, rejects any suggestion of a “fire sale,” and says it is cooperating with regulators and investigators while firmly denying fraud.
TWG Global — the holding company of Dodgers owner Mark Walter — rejected allegations of financial impropriety in the purchase and operation of the Dodgers and reiterated the team is not for sale.
At a time insurance regulators and federal investigators are looking into allegations that insurance companies under Walter’s umbrella did not properly disclose and conduct transactions between other companies he controls, and after Walter sold his controlling interest in the Lakers at a record $12.5 billion valuation, potential bidders have monitored whether the Dodgers might be sold as well.
In a statement Tuesday, TWG Global decried “multipronged attacks against TWG … by unnamed sources with self-serving interests” and said no insurance policyholder has been hurt as a result of the company’s financial transactions.
Analysts are split on whether Josh Kushner and Bob Iger overpaid for the Lakers when they agreed on a price of $12.5 billion for the iconic NBA team.
“There is no victim here,” the statement said. “No one has been harmed, and no one has claimed they were harmed.”
In 2012, when Walter and his partners bought the Dodgers for $2 billion, The Times reported the use of $1.2 million from Guggenheim Partners insurance funds into the deal. At the time, rival bidders expressed concern over the unusual financing, but state insurance regulators cleared the deal and Major League Baseball approved it.
“The transaction was subject to a full investigation conducted by an outside law firm on behalf of insurance regulators from multiple states,” the statement said, “which identified no irregularities and resulted in no further action.”
Even with the Dodgers issuing over a billion dollars in deferred contracts and amid whatever transactions might have been conducted between TWG-related insurance companies and the Dodgers’ affiliates — including ones that hold the team’s television rights and ticket revenues — the Dodgers’ ability to fund player contracts is not at risk, according to the statement.
“The Dodgers have the highest revenue in baseball, and it significantly exceeds the team’s obligations to its players,” the statement said.
The statement reiterated that, as Dodgers president Stan Kasten has said, “the team is not being sold and no sale process has been initiated.”
The Dodgers, if sold, could likely command a price in the range of $10 billion to $13 billion, industry analysts have told The Times.
The Lakers sold at a record price for a North American sports franchise, although industry analysts have said a competitive bidding process likely would have resulted in an even higher sale price.
Said the statement: “Mr. Walter was approached by Josh Kushner and his team about this transaction and the agreement represents a 25% premium to the price paid by Mr. Walter less than a year ago (and an even higher premium to the $5.0 billion valuation Mr. Walter paid in 2021) — hardly a ‘fire sale.’”
Dodgers president Stan Kasten says the team is not going to be sold amid financial difficulties of majority owner Mark Walter’s companies and a federal inquiry into his insurance empire.
The statement added: “TWG is not looking to sell its sports assets at ‘fire sale’ prices to raise capital for its insurance operations.”
TWG said it is “working cooperatively and in partnership with the Delaware Department of Insurance” to resolve the regulatory issues and “is committed to working with the U.S. Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission to resolve their inquiries.”
“TWG stands firmly behind the integrity of its business,” the statement read. “Despite what has been reported, there has been no fraud.”
