Now that the season is winding down and clubs know which divisions they are going to be in next season, the M&A machine has certainly fired up once again.

The headliner, for now, is probably Sunderland coming on the market.

Since 2023, Kyril Louis-Dreyfus has been the majority shareholder of the Black Cats, owning 64% of the club, while Juan Sartori has the remaining 36%.

There hasn’t been much noise about Sunderland having come on the market, but high net worth investors and funds who have previously expressed an interest in owning a Premier League team have been offered the club in recent weeks, FootBiz can reveal.

We won’t get in the habit of breaking exclusives, it’s not really the point of FootBiz, but this one seemed interesting as Google literally told us that Sunderland aren’t for sale.

But yes, from the materials available to investors we can say that the Wearside club have retained investment bank Moelis, who have previously worked on the sales of Chelsea, Angel City and a number of other major clubs, with a view to a transaction.

Why the owners might be selling is not certain, but given Louis-Dreyfus took a majority stake in the club when they were in League One and now they’re safely ensconced in the middle of the Premier League, you’d imagine he’s just decided that a healthy return on his investment and getting out before things go south is the sane move. Very few owners are making sane moves these days.

We can’t really stick a valuation on the club right now because the most recent accounts we have for Sunderland were those from 2024/25, when they were still in the Championship. The good news there is that they generated more revenue than any other club in the second tier during that campaign — except those benefitting from parachute payments, who are playing a different game.

It’s an admittedly broad range, but we can expect Sunderland’s revenue to land somewhere between £160-200m in the accounts for this season, buoyed of course by the Premier League’s TV revenues and increased sponsorship and matchday revenues, but also by prize money which will far exceed expectations.

Assuming they had budgeted for relegation (or, at best, finishing 17th) then their current league position (12th) would net them around £15-20m extra. Not to be sniffed at.

In short, though, Sunderland are going to be posting record revenues, a solid mid-table position and there is probably not a better time to take your chips off the table and sell the club. Mid-to-lower PL clubs tend to transact for between 1.5x and 3x revenues but given they own a big, modern stadium you’d probably expect Sunderland to fetch closer to the higher end of that range.

What happens next for the young Louis-Dreyfus himself is interesting.

For those not aware, the Louis-Dreyfus family’s wealth goes back centuries, the sort of dynastic wealth that means the great grandkids get born with more money than you’ll ever earn. The Louis Dreyfus Company was started in the 1850s and has been handed down through the generations, becoming a mammoth shipping and agriculture conglomerate with over $120bn worth of annual sales.

Some of the family have gone on to have success outside the company walls, like Julia Louis-Dreyfus, the Golden Globe-winning actress best known for Seinfeld, Veep and Saturday Night Live, or Robert Louis-Dreyfus, who became CEO of Adidas.

Kyril is the son of Robert, and while much was made of his age when he assumed control of Sunderland (he became chairman at 23, here’s the profile in Tatler) it would be hard to argue that he has not been successful since taking over. Given his experience in the Premier League, one has to wonder if he is eyeing a bigger opportunity? Perhaps, given his father was once owner and he grew up a fan, the lure of Marseille will prove to great to resist. He’d have to prise the club from the vice-like grip of Frank McCourt, however.

And from what we are hearing, Sunderland isn’t going to be the only top-flight club hitting the market in 2026. More on that another time, though.