Wall Street Ready as Prokhorov Prepares to Sell the Brooklyn Nets

Brooklyn Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov is reportedly ready to sell the National Basketball Association (NBA) franchise.

The Russian billionaire is believed to have called on independent investment banking advisory firm Evercore partners to sell the team he purhased in 2010, according to sources close to the matter.

The sale of the Nets may cost more than the current NBA record of $2 billion which Microsoft CEO Steve Balmer paid for the Los Angeles Clippers last year.

Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorovretained Evercore Partners (EVR) to sell the franchise he bought in 2010, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter. The commodities tycoon paid about $220 million for 80 percent of the club and 45 percent of its arena, the 2 1/2-year-old Barclays Center, which the people said isn’t part of the sale. The people requested anonymity because the matter is private. 

Bruce Ratner owns 20 percent of the team and a majority stake in the building.

Ratner previously hired Evercore to explore a sale of his interest in the team. No agreement was reached as it’s difficult to find someone willing to pay hundreds of millions of dollars without getting a say in operations. Guggenheim Sports and Entertainment, which paid a U.S. sports record $2.15 billion for Major League Baseball’s Los Angeles Dodgers and their stadium, previously held talks with Prokhorov that didn’t yield an agreement. 

Ellen Pinchuk, a spokeswoman for Prokhorov, whose net worth of $11.1 billion is down from a high of $12.5 billion in November, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, said no sale agreement is imminent. 

“Team ownership is open to listening to offers,” she said. “That’s just part of the business.”