GdS: Everything you need to know about RedBird’s takeover of Milan as closing approaches

By Isak Möller -

RedBird Capital will be the new owners of AC Milan this fall as the closing is scheduled for September. When it was first announced by the club in early June, it seemed far away but the closing is now approaching fast.

Gerry Cardinale, the CEO of RedBird, has already shared his thoughts on the takeover of Milan and the future is looking bright for the club. The project that Elliott Management started, which has brought so much success, will be built on.

There are without a doubt many details to this takeover that could be worth knowing, as highlighted by Gazzetta Dello Sport. The valuation of the club and subsequently the takeover is €1.2bn, part of which will be funded by a vendor loan from Elliott to RedBird at an interest rate of 7%.

Based on the market, it’s a relatively low interest rate and it’s a way for Elliott to keep some control of the club and also for RedBird to delay part of the takeover payment. It’s certainly not an unusual solution and in this case, it’s perfect for both parties.

The vendor loan will be valued at €200-600m, depending on how much Cardinale will be able to raise from investors. It’s possible that it could end up being €600m after all, which would only strengthen the bond between Elliott and RedBird.

As part of the vendor loan, Elliott will also be able to appoint two members to the board of directors and they will most likely be Gordon Singer and Giorgio Furlani, although confirmation is still lacking on that.

Finally, there has been talk of minor shareholder Blue Skye’s anger over the sale to RedBird in recent weeks. However, Elliott are not worried and a company (Arena Investors) which helped Blue Skye raise funds have defended the former. Blue Skye will remain entitled to their 4% share, but it won’t affect the change of ownership.

Tags AC Milan elliott management RedBird Capital

12 Comments

  1. Botman, Sanches, Bremer, Lang, Asensio, Dybala, Scamacca, Berardi… Our mercato tells me everything I need to know.

    1. Of those only 3 have actually moved, this is how in demand this group is. Two (Botman and Bremer) bought way over value, Dybala’s glass legs for 6m to Roma, a club not even playing in the CL, again showing how in demand this player is. Berardi, again such a top talent that he’s staying put at perennial scudetto challengers Sassuolo despite his bargain price of 40m Euro, and now two weeks short of his 28th birthday. Lang so hot that he’s still at Brugge, Asensio with a 7m salary already (and probably not interested in coming to Milan) and Scamacca being valued at 50m by Sassuolo, so much that not even PSG are paying it. LOL. Our mercato tells you that our club isn’t going to be fleeced by anyone.

  2. I’m pretty sure Elliot will manage to block the sale to Redbird because they were never intended to be the buyer but only a haggling tool for investcorp negotiation. Elliot wanted to keep the whole negotiation a secret, but Investcorp blew the whistle. Cardinale saw the chance and took it as he watched the passion of the fans. That’s about it.

  3. This is also why we don’t have a budget over 70 mil.. ! We can only use what we earned from Scudetto, UCL and player sales. Neither Elliot nor Redbird risking any investment this season because they don’t know who will own Milan after September and Redbird is broke AF, they don’t have even 100 mil of Liquid cash. We are in for one hell of a circus.

  4. What we all know is that Redbird have no $$ and in 3 years Elliot will take over again when Redbird defaults in their loans lol. Same what happend with Li. Elliot’s plan all along and why they didn’t want to sell to a real buyer with deep pockets – Investcorp. Great business strategy by Elliot horrible for us fans.

    1. Investcorp has pockets so deep that they went and bought a premier league club and dropped 200m on two players alone. Makes you wonder why they were interested in Serie A to begin with. Oh wait, that hasn’t happened at all. Good thing we just managed to avoid the drop last season. So that when Elliott’s master plan of repossessing Milan for the second time happens in a couple of years Investcorp will still be interested!

      1. Ha! Keep drinking the koolaid my friend. Im sure in your world we will sign Neymar and Haaland! hahahaha. So many sheep on this world lol. Read back what I said. Maybe you will comprehend it the second time. It isn’t about Investcorp son. It’s about not wanting to sell to an owner that has $$ – so Elliot can re-purchase on favorable terms down the road IF Redbird don’t repay the loan -being they are a 30% owner to begin with. Smart business And last year was last year has nothing to do with this season.

        1. In my world we’re signing CDK for 35m, maybe Ziyech or someone similar for a 5m loan with an option and maybe Tanganga or someone similar in a similar operation and for now that’s just fine with me, since we’re defending champions, decreasing our losses year over year and increasing revenues. I drink champagne by the way.

  5. Basically RedBird and elliot are just the same . Want to win something with low cost money like in movie moneyball. Well nothing changed unless elliot fully complete out from AC Milan . For now elliot still control AC Milan due to 30 percent share and redbird have debt to elliot

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