A financial news specialist notes the difference between the approaches Milan fans can expect between Elliott Management and potential new owners Investcorp, who are tied in with Manchester City owners.
The negotiations are effectively confirmed by both parties, with an exclusivity deal for two weeks and expected closing in May, the takeover of the Serie A club costing circa €1bn.
Marco Bellinazzo is a writer for Il Sole 24 Ore, the Italian equivalent of the Financial Times, and he outlined what supporters can expect when moving from one investment fund to another.
“Elliott has in its DNA the idea of buying a company, creating value, putting it back on the market and selling on at a profit.
“The sovereign wealth funds, or at least those connected to sovereign wealth funds like Investcorp, also want a return on their money, but their objectives are not purely financial. In football, that means victories.”
While Investcorp are based in Bahrain, the real fund behind them is believed to be Mubadala, Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund.
“We shouldn’t be surprised by their interest in Milan. For years now these sovereign wealth funds have been operating important investments in the world of sport in general, particularly in football, for example PSG and Manchester City.
“At the end of 2021 there was an agreement between the sovereign funds of the Emirates and Bahrain, so they basically forged an alliance to invest in sport.
“However, Mubadala did not propose a direct investment in Milan because the CEO of Mubadala is the President of Manchester City.”
While the Premier League has already been plundered by foreign investors, the market for making a profit is now seen as Serie A.
“There is a very fertile market in Italy at the moment, as shown by how many clubs are now owned by foreigners,” added Bellinazzo.
“Elliott don’t actually need to sell Milan, but can make an important profit. They could wait for the stadium to be built or even make more if they win the Scudetto, but it looks like Investcorp want to get the deal done pretty quickly.
“Atalanta were valued at €700m thanks also to the ownership of their stadium, which Milan do not currently have, but the AC Milan brand has a global importance that gives them that value.”
Cessione Milan, Bellinazzo: “Investcorp vuole chiudere in tempi stretti. Ecco la differenza tra questo fondo ed Elliott” https://t.co/FpM4typUwt
— MilanNews.it (@MilanNewsit) April 19, 2022
Wouldn’t be great sportswashing if the club was relegated now would it? They need Milan to be successful, Elliot just needed Milan to be profitable.
Here we go, AC Mecca. They’ll spend $800,000,000 every summer and win every scudetto for the next century at least. Great. Final nail in calcio’s coffin. At least they’ll be able to compete with Muhammed City and PSGihadi in the UEFA moneyball league.
Can’t wait to call Milan an Oil Club whenever their annoying fans try to talk.
Juventus were garbage and came back the hard way. After even longer spells of being garbage, Inter and now Milan sold their souls to China and the Middle East respectively to get back to the top.
Gross.
Hahaha it’s so funny to see such lame attempts at hiding your true emotion, it’s foolish to think money hasn’t taken ove the game we all love so much many years ago, Milan are and I hope will always be a club of such importance, we have come back to competing the hard way and to now have good investment would be great timing. Don’t act like spoilt kids, money doesn’t guarantee anything so don’t be scared, just hope one day someone might want your club too
As a milan fan. Call us what you want, it’s been 10 years that any serie a team was able to compete wth the big teams around the world. So if this company takes over and injects the cash flow to be at the top again then I’m all for it. The difference between milan and teams like city and psg is that we have history. Players should want to come here and be the most successful. I’ll gladly take oil money.
I don’t live so far away from Manchester and have seen the infrastructure around Man City, they’re there for the long term. If this happens I hope they do similar for Milan.
Don’t be jealous of Milan. Milan will conquer Serie A. Juventus fans are scared and worried. Their dominance will end.
Inter fans were licking their lips and talking trash already when rumors of Inter’s takeover by Saudi’s were in full swing, and Juventus may have been Italian all this time but they have acted as corrupt as these sovereign investors over the years, trying to cheat the system at every turn and buying up talent for absurd money that they don’t have with capital injections.
Now the fans of these same clubs are shaming Milan for the possible takeover. Isn’t that funny?
Well most of us Milan fans ain’t like that. We probably can’t stop supporting this club, but we also make no mistake about it either, if this deal goes through, then this will be the death of the AC Milan football club as we know and love it. What will be born after is going to be some other beast entirely, and while I will personally love and support it still, I’m not sure if I’ll ever be able to love it the same as before.
I’ve hated PSG and City for too long to love a Milan side like them.
Serie A needs one top team to be foreign owned with unlimited funds for its budget. Its sad that this is what football has turned into but you absolutely need this to compete in Europe and this would elevate the entire league. GOOD NEWS FOR ALL SERIE A IF TRUE
@Milan Fan – Exactly as I see it.
FI – fix your god damn comment section. No matter what it is our comment content you remove them randomly, wasting our precious time with our incompetent!
@milan fan Me along with majority of inter fans I talked with didn’t want PIF because of the the thing sthey have done to innocent people don’t know what you’re talking about