Italian football league Serie A champions Inter Milan could see a change in ownership over non-repayment of debt around $434 million. The debt is owed by Inter’s Chinese owner Suning group to US Investment fund Oaktree and the US firm can take control of the club after the debt repayment deadline passes on Tuesday (May 21).
The Chinese group had taken a loan of about $300 million at an interest rate of 12 per cent to pay the staff and players during the Covid pandemic. The club was kept as collateral for the loan by the Suning group.
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As the US lender waits for the repayment of debt, news agency AFP, citing a source said that a ‘not event a single euro’ has been paid to Oaktree yet.
Steven Zhang, Inter’s president, on Saturday (May 18) accused the US Investment firm of ‘jeopardising’ the club’s financial stability with unspecified legal actions. It also said that Oaktree is obstructing negotiations of full repayment. Zhang’s reportedly has been in negotiations with another US fund Pimco to repay Oaktree.
Club’s CEO Giuseppe Marotta, however, said that the situation was ‘stable’. Marotta made the comments after Inter’s last league game on Sunday (May 20) in San Siro.
Inter won the the league title for the second time in four years. The club has won seven trophies along with two European finals ever since Suning group took over in 2016.
They, however, were hit hard by the pandemic and had reported a loss of about $93 million in 2022/23 season before facing a loss of $151 million and $266 million in two seasons prior to that. The losses were majorly due to closure of stadiums and most of the football clubs faced the heat of financial crunch during the Covid times.
Inter’s local rivals AC Milan were also taken over by another US fund, Elliot Management, in 2018 after failure of repayment of loan by Chinese businessman Li Yonghong.
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