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The Inter Milan football club has changed ownership, passing from the Zhang family to the US asset management company Oaktree Capital Management. In May 2021, Oaktree had lent 275 million euros to the Zhangs and their company (the Chinese Suning), to help them support the large losses that Inter had in that period (they closed the 2020-2021 season, in which they won the Scudetto, with a budget loss of 246 million euros).
The term of the loan expired on May 21, which in the meantime had increased to 395 million euros due to interest at 12 percent. As stated in a statement released on Wednesday, since the Zhangs did not return it and did not find other investors to refinance it, Oaktree became the owner of 99.6 percent of Inter’s shares. These had been placed as collateral for the credit granted and were essentially collected unilaterally by the US fund, with a mechanism called pledge enforcement.
In the statement, Oaktree said it wanted to “achieve the best result for Inter’s long-term prosperity”. He also said that he intends to work with the current Inter management team and aim for sustainable growth, starting from the club’s financial stability. According to many experts, the American company has no intention of remaining the owner of Inter in the long term: it is likely that it will soon look for a buyer to sell the club to, in order to make a profit. In the meantime, it seems that he will confirm the current sporting management.
Since 2020, Oaktree also has 80 percent of Caen, a team that plays in the French second division, Ligue 2. For the first time, Inter will have American ownership, like that of city rivals Milan. The Zhangs had bought Inter in 2016. In the eight years of their presidency the team won two Scudetti, including the twentieth, that of the second star, and then two Italian Cups and three Italian Super Cups. Inter also played in the 2020 Europa League final, lost against Sevilla, and the 2023 Champions League final, lost against Manchester City (they are respectively the second and first European club cup in terms of importance).
– Read also: What Oaktree, the new owner of Inter, is and what it does
2024-05-22 09:51:17
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