PIF-backed Newcastle United reports profit after stadium sale

• $47m profit in year to June 2025
• Stadium deal complies with EPL rules
• Club’s commercial revenue up 44%

Saudi Arabia-backed Newcastle United FC has announced annual profit of £35 million ($47 million), buoyed by the sale of its St James’ Park stadium and property assets to a company belonging to the club’s owners.

The profit for the 12 months to June 2025 followed a $14 million loss in the previous financial year.

PZ Newco Holdings (PZNH), incorporated in the UK on June 5, 2025, sits within the same ownership structure as Newcastle United. Both are controlled by PZ Newco, the investment vehicle majority-owned by the Public Investment Fund, Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund.

Just days before the football club’s financial year-end on June 30, PZNH acquired leasehold improvements at St James’ Park for $229 million. The transaction generated a $171 million accounting gain for Newcastle United.

Without this, the English Premier League club would have made a considerable loss on the year.

Football finance expert Kieran Maguire said the process was entirely legal and EPL clubs such as Aston Villa and Chelsea had previously made similar deals.

“The Premier League’s PSR [profitability and sustainability rules] framework permits such transactions provided they are conducted at fair market value,” he wrote in a LinkedIn post. 

“Newcastle will have had the valuation independently assessed, and the Premier League will scrutinise it accordingly. There is no suggestion of wrongdoing here.”

Further reading:

• PIF-backed Newcastle United in talks to fund new stadium
• Newcastle United emerges as one of PIF’s smartest sports bets
• PCP’s Staveley says Gulf interest in Premier League remains strong

In 2025 Newcastle won its first domestic trophy for 70 years and qualified for the lucrative Uefa Champions League with a fifth-place finish in the Premier League.

During the year, the club’s turnover increased by $20 million to $446 million, strengthened by a 44 percent rise in commercial revenue.

“Our financial results reflect not only strong progress on and off the pitch, but also the firm foundations being laid for the future we all aspire to,” said CEO David Hopkinson.

The Saudi wealth fund led a buyout of Newcastle in October 2021, alongside PCP Capital Partners and RB Sports & Media in a deal valued at about $410 million.

The PIF, which has about $1.15 trillion in assets under management, invested a further $46.5 million in the club in October 2024.
The wealth fund has undergone a change in approach in recent months. A new five-year strategy is due to be revealed imminently, with a greater emphasis on attracting private-sector investment to its portfolio companies, Yasir Al Rumayyan said in February.