Among the interesting things to emerge following yesterday’s raid by the authorities on Casa Milan is that the framework seems to be in place to welcome an investor.
La Gazzetta dello Sport (seen below) have provided a comprehensive round-up of what we know so far regarding the investigation, which is looking into the sale of AC Milan from Elliott Management to RedBird Capital, plus the role of Giorgio Furlani and Ivan Gazidis.
As part of their coverage, they dedicate a column to the future, remarking that the idea of a global Milan – i.e. with ownership divided between America and the Middle East – was not a journalistic indiscretion.
In the search decree against the four suspects, the reality emerges in detail with the numbers in black and white, showing the PIF fund indicated as the investor destined to enter into the ownership structure of the club.
In a specific document (titled: ‘AC Milan Investor Presentation’) reference is made to a financier, PIF, who would receive ‘41.7% of the shares through the repurchase of 80% of the Vendor Loan for 487.5 million dollars’.
Two specifications are needed. One: PIF – who are Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund – have a net worth of $861bn and they have the objective of reaching $1trillion by the end of 2025 thanks to investments in various areas. In 2021, PIF took over Newcastle for €350m and they have control of the big four clubs in the Saudi Pro League.
Two: the Vendor Loan is a €550m loan – repayable in three years with an interest rate of 7% – which RedBird received from Elliott. It means that Cardinale, by the end of 2025, will have to return approximately €665m to Singer’s fund, including the interest.
The share that PIF would have acquired from Elliott would have been converted into equity – a possibility that does not appear in the documents – making the Saudi giant Milan’s second largest shareholder.
A brief history of Milan ownership
Berlusconi to Li – 2017
Li to Elliot – 2018
Elliot to Redbird/Elliot – 2022
Redbird/Elliot to Redbird/PIF – 2024
Technically, Elliot do not own a share as of now. They will only get the share (albeit not majority) if Redbird fail to pay the vendor loan.
This is what the whole investigation is about, Elliot still having an influence due to the 665m they are owed. Not to mention the fact that if Redbird defaults they get it all as happened with Li.
It’s like if you bought a house for 200k, paid 100k from your savings and got a loan of 100k from the bank.
Who owns the house?
The bank holds the house as collateral and reposes if loan is not paid.
Elliot doesn’t own any shares as of current.
Dream come true for some fans. Get ready for a lot if exhibitionsl games and random cup tournaments in Arabia.
You mean like the tournament last summer all over the US? Or the game in Australia scheduled four days after the end of Serie A?
The only thing we could miss is the probity of our angelic Wall Street bankers. I guess PIF is as much « ambitious » as Jerry.
It’s not about headless and needless spending. I’m all against that. That is why I was against Chinese revamp and I was against the RedBird revamp. Too many changes at once is never good.
It’s about missing puzzles and quality level of those missing puzzles one can afford while respecting FFP rules and keeping the books balanced and clean.
I don’t care if it’s PIF or some other nasty rich Middle Eastern but those people can bring in money through big sponsorship deals, like City and PSG are doing with companies that are in their indirect ownership or some cousin’s ownerships. And those people each have like 50 nasty oil rich cousins down there.
With these owners today, all we are good is for grooming talent and selling them in order to keep the books balanced at least until we have our own stadium built and paid off. It’s not even making the team stronger, when you remove one settled star key player to get bunch of ” potentially could bees”. There’s no continuity or consistency in that.
Yep it’s a pick your poison scenario really
It will be funny if PIF ask for Maldini to return to management.
No to any Saudi ownership. Period. I hope he finds a different investor.
Totally agree!
I hope PIF buys all of Milan’s shares instead of just 41%
Doesn’t suprise me in the slightest regarding this info also proof that the fans mean f##k all to these people but just what does this mean going foward? Mr Cardinale really must adress this if we can believe anything that they say .
Man Elliot is truly the smart one or the “culture” fund in a long this. Loan of 550m, repayment is 665m. That’s a cool 115m.
And that’s on top of repossessing Milan for 300m loan to Li which he defaulted on…sellers the club for 1.2bn (gross diff of about 800m). Man that’s some good business! Gerry on the other hand is hoping the oil ppl bail him out…piggy backing on Elliott’s approach. For PIF to see their investment grow they WILL invest and probably the hope is that the value of the club increases which Gerry will then sell his stake making pure profit then seeing as he has zero money pumped into the club. Cant knock the hustle
Will Redbird be able to pay the 20%? Anyways 41,7 to 58,3 is interesting in terms of power sharing, i prefer it that way that all the powers centralised on one indvidual, good for constructive criticism
Wait hold up, quick math here…”PIF, who would receive ‘41.7% of the shares through the repurchase of 80% of the Vendor Loan for 487.5 million dollar”
Doesnt this mean that the value of the vendor loan reaches majority shares (ie 41.7/80% ..around 52%). Is that correct?
So Gerry never purchased majority stake outright. He only purchased around 48%. If the vendor loan can’t be paid back, Elliot gets back majority control.