David Beckham tripled revenues from his brand and investments to £34 million ($40.9 million) in 2021 before signing a controversial sponsorship deal to promote Qatar ahead of the football World Cup. After the reporting period closed, the retired footballer faced public criticism for agreeing to promote Qatar despite concerns around the treatment of migrant workers and the country’s record on human rights. Some critics called on Beckham to donate the fee to LGBTQ charities, given homosexuality...

LONDON/DUBAI/ABU DHABI, Sept 24 (Reuters) - A group of private equity investors, including Fajr Capital, Blackstone and Bahrain’s Mumtalakat, is weighing the sale of their combined stake in the emerging market business of UAE-based GEMS Education, three sources said. The consortium has held preliminary talks with investors about an outright sale of the more than 20 percent stake after GEMS shelved its plan to list the schools operator in London, which deprived them of an exit in their more...

Lucy Nicholson LONDON (Reuters) - Apollo Global Management LLC (APO.N) has raised the largest ever private equity fund, a regulatory filing showed, amassing $24.6 billion to be invested in North America and Western Europe, as global fundraising looked set to exceed 2007's record. Since the financial crisis almost a decade ago, low interest rates and cheap debt have boosted capital piling into private equity funds by investors looking for higher returns. But rising valuations have made it...

Private equity firms have used buoyant debt markets to take almost $3 billion in special payouts from European portfolio companies so far this year, quadrupling the same period in 2016. Buyout firms typically invest in a company for up to five years before "exiting", but if they are unable or unwilling to sell out they can turn to so-called dividend recapitalisations, funded by loans or bonds, to get a cash return. Their use has been criticised in the past because it can saddle portfolio...