Italian giants AC Milan could well be the next club to be bought up by Chinese investors.

 

News reported yesterday that Chinese investors are close to agreeing to an 80 per cent stake buy in the Serie A side, who are seven-time European Cup and Champions League winners, and will acquire the remaining 20 per cent in the next two to three years.

 

“Two parties are discussing the 80 per cent takeover by the Chinese investors and the negotiations are still continuing,” the newspaper quoted an unidentified person familiar with the talks as saying.

 

Former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, whose family holding company Fininvest owns AC Milan, opened exclusive talks in May with the Chinese consortium about selling a majority stake to try to inject new capital into a club which has failed to win a major competition in the past five years. Reuters reported at the time that the Chinese were valuing the club at up to €750 million (S$1.12 billion), including debt, and that the talks had envisaged an initial sale of 70 per cent.

 

The source also told that Fininvest is confident a final agreement can be reached in the next week, although some important legal and financial details had still to be agreed and would need approval by Berlusconi.

 

Chinese electronics retailer Suning Commerce Group last month agreed to buy nearly 70 per cent of the club’s Italian rivals, Inter Milan, for €270 million, in the highest-profile takeover of a European team by a Chinese firm.

 

In the past 12 months, Chinese investors have been either buying or pouring substantial investments into football clubs. Last October, Dalian Wanda Group chairman Wang Jianlin paid S$67 million for a 20 per cent stake in Spanish side Atletico Madrid while China Media Capital paid S$539 million for a 13 per cent share of Premier League club Manchester City.

 

In May, Chinese businessman Tony Xia bought over relegated Premier League side Aston Villa while another Chinese tycoon, Jiang Lizhang, took over Spanish side Granada CF for S$55.3 million. 

 

 

Please contact us in case of Copyright Infringement of the photo sourced from the internet, we will remove it within 24 hours.