A Conversation with Todd Boehly | Global Investors' Symposium Hong Kong 2025

Global Baseball Expansion Trends & Challenges

• Last year, 13 million viewers in Japan watched the World Series, with some games drawing more viewers from Japan than the United States.
• MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred implemented a pitch clock (20 seconds with bases loaded, 15 seconds otherwise) to speed up the game and improve entertainment value.
• Significant talent development is occurring in Japan, South Korea, and Latin America, with high demand for the sport in these regions.
• A key structural barrier to international expansion is the current revenue-sharing model, which distributes revenue from non-U.S. markets equally among all teams rather than rewarding the team making the specific investment.
• Eldridge Industries advocates for a future global media model to capitalize on international growth, noting that legacy governance and incentive structures need reform to support this.

Eldridge Industries Asset Management Restructuring

• Eldridge reorganized its private credit businesses (Marinon, Kane, Panagram, Stonebriar) into a unified asset management platform with $70 billion in assets under management.
• The reorganization aims to scale individual track records and align incentives by making Eldridge the largest investor in its funds, ensuring 100% alignment with external investors.
• The strategy mirrors Berkshire Hathaway's model of combining an insurance business (long-term liabilities) with an alternative asset management business (long-term credit assets).
• Eldridge's growth targets include compounding the insurance business while expanding in the asset management sector, competing against peers like Blackstone, Apollo, KKR, and Brookfield.

Investment Philosophy & Synergy Strategy

• Eldridge utilizes a finance-based valuation model for sports investments, categorizing assets into core films/projects (targeting 1.35x returns), discovery projects (targeting 1.2x), and "swing for the fences" sequels (targeting 1.2x).
• Acquisitions must succeed on a standalone "base case" without relying on synergies, as the firm avoids convincing partners to change their core operations.
• Synergies are treated as "gravy"; when they occur naturally (e.g., overlapping customer bases between FlexJet and Aiman), they enhance the core investment.
• The firm prioritizes investments with multiple paths to value and avoids industries where they must actively convince stakeholders to participate.

Real Estate: The Aman Project in Beverly Hills

• Eldridge is redeveloping a 1.2 million square foot residential and commercial property in Beverly Hills, including 17 acres of private gardens and 10 acres of total garden space.
• The project features undergrounding Merv Griffin Way to physically and visually separate residential and commercial zones, creating a secure, privacy-focused environment.
• The development targets high-net-worth individuals seeking "serenity, amenities, and security," with 170 residential units and a private club; several units have already been sold to prominent business leaders.
• The firm remains bullish on the Los Angeles market despite regional fires, citing unique infrastructure, the permanence of Hollywood's content export, and the presence of major sports franchises like the Dodgers and Lakers.

Golden Globes Brand Revival

• Eldridge acquired the Golden Globes to revive a brand that suffered from outdated governance and an inability to adapt to changing media economics.
• The original crisis stemmed from an inward-looking governance structure, lack of diversity (specifically no Black members), and diluted monetization due to social media saturation.
• Post-acquisition, Eldridge secured control of the intellectual property, allowing them to bypass the previous requirement for approval from 88 HFPA members.
• The revived event is positioned as an "all-star game" celebrating excellence in film and TV, featuring a looser atmosphere and a successful host (Nikki Glaser) to differentiate it from other award shows.

Macroeconomic Outlook & Risk Management

• Eldridge avoids long-dated fixed-rate bonds, citing the 8.7% cumulative return of the U.S. Treasury Index from 2014–2024 as evidence of hidden risk in supposedly "risk-free" assets.
• The firm's portfolio consists primarily of floating-rate assets to mitigate interest rate risk, contrasting with the strategy of banks like Silicon Valley Bank that mismatched short-term liabilities with long-term fixed-rate assets.
• Return data from 2014–2024 shows senior secured lending (loans) outperformed investment-grade bonds (28%) and Treasury bonds (8.7%), with triple-B CLOs returning 88% over the same period.
• The strategy prioritizes risk-adjusted returns and capital preservation over traditional fixed-income exposure in volatile rate environments.

Personal Influences on Leadership

• Eldridge cites four key professional mentors and one spouse as primary catalysts for his career: wrestling coach/high school math teacher, Mark Walter (Guggenheim Partners), Mike Milken, and partner Hans-Jörg Wyss.
• Mark Walter specifically provided early trust in managing a credit business at age 28, while Milken taught relentless credit strategies.
• Eldridge notes that his wife has provided stability, allowing for increased travel flexibility now that their children are in college.