AC Milan had the same owner for 31 years when Silvio Berlusconi was in charge, but since 2017 things have been a bit more turbulent on that front.
According to what is being reported by La Gazzetta dello Sport (seen below), Gerry Cardinale is looking for new investors in the Middle East and as part of this it is necessary to outline the current corporate situation.
At the end of August 2022, Milan changed ownership. The Elliott Management Corporation fund – who restored the club over four years by cleaning up the accounts – sold 99.93 % of Milan to ACM BidCo, a Dutch vehicle of RedBird Capital Partners, the investment fund managed by Cardinal.
Nearly half of that amount came from a vendor loan. That is, a loan granted by the seller (Elliott) to the buyer (RedBird) to complete the Milan purchase and sale deal. A loan of €550m, repayable in three years with an interest rate of 7%.
This means, therefore, that Cardinale – by December 31, 2025 – will have to repay around €665m including interest to Elliott. It is significant commitment, to the point that Elliott obtained a pledge on the shares ‘as a guaranteed credit, by virtue of the contract called Pledge Agreement over Shares’.
Elliott still have a significant presence on the Board of Directors, with three members out of 10: Gordon Singer (son of Paul, already previously involved in the management of Milan), Giorgio Furlani and Stefano Cocirio.
The latter two were made Milan’s CEO and financial director last year which is a demonstration of the line of continuity between Singer’s Elliott and Cardinale’s RedBird. Not only strategic (sustainable growth and self-sufficiency) but also governance decided by the new ownership of Milan.
Then there is Paolo Scaroni, the President of Milan, who has been on the Milan Board of Directors since April 2017 and number one since July 2018, i.e. since Elliott’s arrival. He was recently appointed president of RedBird International.
