Christian Horner is to become a special advisor on “investments in premium sports” to a leading private equity investor.
Horner is joining Oakley Capital as an advisor, which holds existing investments in sailing’s Athena Racing, who are challenging for the America’s Cup, as well as padel and golf brands.
“Sports businesses are benefiting from growing global audiences and participation rates as more people embrace healthier, active lifestyles,” Horner said.
“I have known and respected Peter [Dubens] and the Oakley team for many years and have always admired their approach to building ambitious, founder-led businesses.
“Oakley Capital has established a strong reputation across the sports and consumer landscape, and I look forward to working together in the future and sharing my experience to help support the next generation of standout sports businesses.”
Speaking about the hire, Horner’s new boss, Dubens explained why he had been hired.
Christian Horner is widely recognised as a highly successful leader in global sport,” founder and managing partner, Peter Dubens explained.
“His track record, expertise and commercial instinct will be invaluable as we continue to scale our sports portfolio. We are increasingly drawn to businesses in this space that share the hallmarks of a typical Oakley investment: founder-led, high-growth and supported by resilient revenues, or under-commercialised ‘scarce’ assets with significant untapped potential.
“We look forward to working with Christian in order to unlock these opportunities.”
The news comes as Horner is actively seeking a route back into F1, with the Briton keen to become a shareholder in a team.
ApexF1News has reported that last week, he held “serious discussions” with BYD of China over a possible 12th F1 team, but that his focus remains on trying to secure the 24% stake Otro Capital is looking to offload in Alpine, for which a consortium he has pieced together is understood to have the money for.
