UNITE HERE Values Zuffa LLC dba Ultimate Fighting Championship at $2.23 Billion

LAS VEGAS, May 19, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- A new valuation report of Zuffa LLC, the parent company of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), has been released by UNITE HERE. The report compares the UFC to other sports promotions and franchises and estimates that the company has a valuation of $2.23 billion, which would mean that, subtracting its approximately $467 million of debt, equity in the company would be worth about $1.76 billion.

"We do not believe the UFC is more valuable than some of the most iconic sports franchises such as the New York Yankees and Dallas Cowboys, whose stadiums are collectively worth almost $2 billion," said Jim Sullivan, an analyst with UNITE HERE. "If the UFC were still growing fast, one could imagine a much higher valuation multiple. But is it growing fast?"

The complete report is available on the Zuffa Investor Alerts website.

The UNITE HERE report estimates the company's value to be approximately $2.23 billion. This suggests that Flash Entertainment's 10% stake in the company has not grown over the past six years, since the Abu Dhabi-government-owned entity reportedly invested in the UFC when Bloomberg Business published an estimation of UFC's value at "more than $2 billion."

A later follow-up report will take a closer look at the state of the UFC, including its growth prospects, sponsorship deals, as well as labor and legal issues to see how they might affect the mixed martial arts promotion's potential valuation.

UNITE HERE represents 270,000 working people in industries such as gaming, hotel, and food service in Canada and the United States. UNITE HERE's Culinary Workers Union Local 226 and Bartenders Union Local 165 have a labor dispute with Station Casinos (NASDAQ: RRR), an affiliate of Zuffa LLC.

SOURCE UNITE HERE