The Jacksonville Jaguars rank as one of the 50 most valuable sports franchises in the world, and Shad Khan’s other major league sports team is now ranked as one of the most valuable soccer clubs.
Fulham FC ranked 26th in the Deloitte Football Money League, an annual list of global soccer teams that produce the most revenue.
According to this year’s ranking announced by Deloitte on Jan. 24, Fulham produced an estimated 209.8 million euros (about $227 million) of revenue in the 2022-23 soccer season.
Just as the Jaguars’ ranking in Forbes magazine’s annual list of top sports franchises reflects the strength of the NFL, Fulham’s ranking reflects the strength of the British Premier League.
Fulham’s addition to this year’s Deloitte list results from the club’s promotion back to the Premier League for the 2022-23 season, after it was relegated to the second-tier Championship Division the previous year.
In British soccer, the bottom three teams in the 20-team Premier League standings are relegated to the second level and replaced by the top teams in the Championship tier every year.
Placement in the top division is obviously more lucrative. Deloitte did not say where Fulham’s revenue was in 2021-22 but the 30th and lowest-ranked team that season had 177.7 million euros in revenue, so Fulham had a big increase last year.
No U.S. teams made Deloitte’s top-30 list. The top team was Real Madrid, which competes in Spain’s LaLiga, with 831.4 million euros in revenue.
The Premier League’s Manchester City F.C. was second with 825.9 million euros.
Forbes said in September that Khan’s Jaguars are the 43rd most valuable sports franchise in the world with an estimated valuation of $4 billion.
Khan bought the team for a reported $760 million in 2012.
The magazine’s list of the 50 most valuable franchises includes 30 of the 32 NFL teams.
Khan bought Fulham for more than $200 million in 2013. Deloitte did not estimate values for the soccer teams.
Deloitte’s soccer list includes 14 of the 20 teams in the Premier League. A.F.C. Bournemouth, a Premier League team owned by a group led by Fidelity National Financial Inc. Chairman Bill Foley, did not make the list.
Sales at Johnson & Johnson’s Jacksonville-based vision products business reached $5 billion in 2023, as growth in sales of contact lenses made in Jacksonville was supplemented by growth in its eye surgical products business.
Total sales, adjusted for foreign exchange fluctuations, rose 6.6% last year to $5.07 billion, with contact lens sales rising 6.9% to $3.7 billion.
“Growth of 6.6% in vision was driven by price actions in contact lenses as well as strength of new products, including Acuvue Oasys 1-Day family of products and contact lenses,” said Jessica Moore, vice president of investor relations for Johnson & Johnson, in the company’s Jan. 23 conference call with analysts.
Moore also said the company is gaining sales with an intraocular lens, an artificial lens implanted to replace the eye’s natural lens in cataract surgery,
New Brunswick, New Jersey-based Johnson & Johnson has been making contact lenses in Jacksonville since it acquired a Jacksonville company called Frontier Contact Lenses in 1981.
The company expanded the vision business beginning in 2016 with acquisitions of companies that make products for cataract surgery.
The medical product giant’s total sales in 2023 rose 6.5% to $85.2 billion.
The Fortegra Group Inc. moved closer to completing its planned initial public offering by announcing terms of the proposed stock sale Jan. 29.
The Jacksonville-based specialty insurance company said in an updated Securities and Exchange Commission filing it plans to sell 18 million shares of stock at $15 to $18 each.
Fortegra was previously a public company before it was acquired by Connecticut-based Tiptree Inc. in 2014.
Tiptree tried to take Fortegra public again in 2021 but pulled the IPO off the table when it could not attract the price it wanted for the stock. However, Tiptree said it would try again for the IPO, and announced in November 2023 it would refile for a public offering.
Fortegra is the major holding of investment company Tiptree, which owns 73.2% of Fortegra’s stock. It will own 57.6% after the sale of 18 million new Fortegra shares.
Investment company Warburg Pincus will own 22.2% after the IPO.
Tiptree said in a Jan. 29 SEC filing that Fortegra had revenue of $1.59 billion in 2023, up 28% from 2022.
Fortegra’s adjusted net income rose 38% to $115.7 million.
Fortegra’s IPO filing said the company had more than 1,100 employees in 25 offices in nine countries as of Sept. 30.
Its stock will trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “TFG.”
Cadre Holdings Inc. said Jan. 23 it is increasing its quarterly dividend from 8 cents a share to 8.75 cents a share, which will raise the annual dividends paid to stockholders by 3 cents to 35 cents per share.
The Jacksonville-based maker of safety and survivability products for law enforcement and first responders had been paying the 8-cent quarterly dividend since its November 2021 IPO.
“The increased dividend reflects our continued strategic execution, strong free cash flows, and confidence in our businesses’ fundamentals moving forward,” CEO Warren Kanders said in a news release.
“We are committed to providing a return to our shareholders, while meeting the needs of our customers and continuing to capitalize on organic and acquisition opportunities ahead,” he said.
Cadre’s stock price rose 63% in 2023, excluding dividend payments.
Ameris Bancorp reported fourth-quarter adjusted earnings fell 9% to $73.6 million, or $1.07 a share.
The company said adjusted earnings for all of 2023 fell 16% to $276.3 million, or $4 a share.
“For the quarter and the full year, we continued to grow tangible book value and strengthened our balance sheet through strong deposit growth, controlled loan growth, sound asset quality, increased reserves for credit losses and robust capital growth,” CEO Palmer Proctor said in a Jan. 25 news release.
During the fourth quarter, Ameris agreed to invest $9 million in the Jacksonville community to settle U.S. Department of Justice accusations of redlining in its lending practices.
Ameris agreed to the settlement but denied any wrongdoing. The company did not address the agreement in its earnings report.
Ameris maintained its executive offices in Jacksonville before moving its headquarters to Atlanta in 2019.
Clearsense, a Jacksonville-based company that provides data and analytics technology for the health care industry, said Jan. 24 that Jason Rose joined the company as CEO.
Gene Scheurer, who founded the company in 2016, will remain on the board of directors and serve as special adviser to the CEO.
Clearsense said in a news release that Rose has 30 years of health care technology experience.
Rose had been CEO of Tennessee-based health care technology firm AdhereHealth since 2018.
Clearsense said it raised $50 million in capital last year from a group led by investment firm HealthQuest Capital, along with Health Catalyst Capital and UPMC Enterprises.