Reports in Italy claims Suning are at real risk of losing control of Inter if they don’t raise €340m in the next 36 months, as their debts reportedly amount to €700m.
An episode of RAI 3 investigation programme Report will be transmitted this evening on the financial crisis in football, but Il Fatto Quotidiano newspaper gives some advance revelations specifically on the situation at Inter, who won the Serie A title in May.
It points out that investment fund Oaktree has loaned €275m to Great Horizon, a holding company that owns 68 per cent of Inter.
The problem is that this isn’t the only money Suning have borrowed to keep the club afloat and it’s claimed the total debt now reaches circa €700m.
All the deadlines are also on the horizon, so the Oaktree loan must be repaid in three years’ time with a 9 per cent annual interest, which reaches €72m over three years.
Added to the original loan, that means Suning must find €340m over the next 36 months to repay Oaktree.
The alternative is to have the holding company, and thus the club, repossessed in a similar way to what happened with ex-Milan President Yonghong Li and Elliott Management’s high-interest loan.
That isn’t all, because Il Fatto Quotidiano also points to the €375m in bonds that must be repaid by December 2022.
This would be difficult at the best of times, but even more so when the club is running at a loss with wages and operative costs that are more than their revenue.
Il Sole 24 Ore correspondent Carlo Festa claims on Twitter that Suning are selling so many players in order to get the books balanced enough to make the club appetising for a complete takeover.
He insists the €700m offer from BC Partners that was rejected over the summer was only snubbed because Inter thought they’d be in the European Super League, a project that was announced and then collapsed within 48 hours.
Now Festa maintains Suning would be content to get €600m for the sale of Inter.