David Beckham has earned £28m in dividends from his personal brand empire, as new commercial tie-ups with brands such as Stella Artois and Boss helped offset losses at his TV production studio.
The former England captain sold a 55% stake in his businesses in 2022 to Authentic Brands for £200m. The US firm owns rights to the images of Muhammad Ali and Elvis Presley, as well as labels such as Reebok and Hunter, which makes wellies.
On Monday, accounts for his holding company, DRJB Holdings, revealed it had approved $124m (£99m) of dividend payouts since the deal was signed.
Beckham, who retired from professional football in 2013, is understood to have been entitled to $35m (£28m) of the payouts.
That means that in the past three years, businesses built on the back of his renown as a footballer have garnered him at least nine times the £25m that Real Madrid paid to prise him from Manchester United in 2003.
He and his wife, Victoria Beckham, who owns a successful fashion brand, are worth an estimated £455m between them, according to the most recent Sunday Times Rich List.
Accounts for DJRB Holdings showed that sales rose slightly in 2023 – up from $89.7m to $91.2m – since Beckham ceded control to Authentic Brands, retaining a 45% stake within his wholly owned company, Footwork Productions.
Pre-tax profit of $36m is not directly comparable with the previous year’s figure of $16.2m, which was affected by a one-off accounting charge associated with the sale of a majority stake to Authentic. On an underlying basis, profit was up from $31m to just under $37m.
DRJB Holdings comprises three divisions, the largest of which is DB Ventures Limited, housing most of his commercial partnerships with brands such as Nespresso.
Profits in DB Ventures rose by 18% to $37.5m, according to figures released by the company, which did not identify the measure of earning it was using.
Another division, Seven Global LLP, contains deals that fall outside the DB Ventures business, including partnerships with Adidas and Safilo, the company that distributes his DB Eyewear brand. Its profits fell from $11.9m to $10.9m.
after newsletter promotion
The remainder of the business is Studio 99, the production studio that made the Netflix documentary Beckham, which ranked in the streaming service’s top 10 shows in all 90 countries where it was released.
However, while revenues from Studio 99 rose to $15m, results for the combined group indicated the production company lost money, despite the success of the Beckham documentary and a series about the snooker player Ronnie O’Sullivan.
Full results for the group have not yet been filed at Companies House. The Guardian has approached a spokesperson for Beckham for more information about losses at the studio, which also makes marketing campaigns for his brand partners.