The majority-owner of Formula E motor racing has tabled an offer to buy a London-based franchise that would participate in a new European basketball league being set up by America’s National Basketball Association (NBA).

I have learnt that Liberty Global, which controls a vast portfolio of media, telecoms and entertainment assets, tabled an offer ahead of a deadline last week set by advisers to the NBA.

Sources said the US-based company had expressed its interest in partnership with either MSP Sports Capital or Jahm Najafi, one of MSP’s founders.

MSP reaped a spectacular financial return from a previous investment it had made in McLaren Racing, while Mr Najafi has been an investor in and vice-chairman of the NBA’s Phoenix Suns team.

The auction of between 10 and 12 city-based franchises in a new NBA European league is projected to generate billions of dollars in revenue as the body which oversees one of the most popular sports in the US plots an ambitious expansion.

The London team is said to have attracted multiple bids worth hundreds of millions of pounds, with other cities including Berlin, Paris, Madrid, Manchester and Milan also set to feature.

Owners of some of the continent’s biggest football clubs are among those to have expressed an interest, including RedBird Capital Partners, the owner of AC Milan, and Qatar Sports Investments, owner of the French Ligue 1 side Paris Saint-Germain.

Media reports have also named private equity firms including BC Partners, Blackstone and General Atlantic among other potential suitors.

Sources said interested parties would meet NBA officials in the coming weeks, with preferred bidders being announced in waves, rather than all 10-12 simultaneously.

Liberty Global is a separate company to Liberty Media Corporation, the owner of Formula One motor racing, but moved to increase its interest in Formula E in 2024 when it bought shares held by Warner Bros Discovery.

Its sprawling portfolio of other assets includes a 50% stake in Virgin Media O2, an electric vehicle charging network called Believ and a small stake in ITV, which it has further reduced in recent months.

The company’s interest in the NBA Europe franchise sales, which has not previously been reported, further indicates the breadth of the process now being run by bankers at JP Morgan and The Raine Group.

“We have received significant interest from a range of prospective teams and investors for permanent franchise spots in a new league in Europe backed by the NBA and FIBA,” Mark Tatum, NBA deputy commissioner, said in a statement last week.

“The level of engagement and the scale of the bids reflect the marketplace’s belief in our proposed model and the enormous, untapped potential for European basketball.”

However, some prospective investors have begun to express reservations about the proposed revenue and costs model associated with the new league.

One said the NBA’s plan to retain more than half of the league’s central revenues, combined with uncertainty about the robustness of media rights forecasts, had made some bidders anxious about overpaying.

“There are still a huge number of unknown factors, but the up-front infrastructure investment is going to be enormous and we think the NBA’s assumptions about hospitality and broadcast revenue need to be properly tested,” said an executive associated with one of the franchise bids.

“A franchise fee of at least $1bn for most of them is quite simply unrealistic.”

While basketball is hugely profitable at the elite level in the US, the sport’s previous forays into Europe, including in Britain, have produced patchy results.

Liberty Global declined to comment, while neither MSP nor Mr Najafi could be reached for comment.