AC Milan president Paolo Scaroni has explained the fundamental difference between previous owners Elliott Management and the new ownership RedBird Capital.
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It was announced last year that Elliott would be stepping aside after four years in charge of the club, having inherited majority shareholder status when Yonghong Li failed to repay loans used to buy the club. Milan stayed in American hands though, with RedBird Capital – led by Gerry Cardinale – acquiring 99.93% of the Rossonero.
Scaroni spoke at the M&A Summit event today, organised by Il Sole 24 Ore, with the theme ‘Mergers and acquisitions in Italy, large investors, the areas concerned and protagonists of the sector’.
He touched on a number of topics from Serie A TV rights to the new stadium project, as well as Milan’s recent change in ownership and what it means for the club’s plans.
“Elliott found themselves the owners of Milan because they had lent money to the old shareholder. They hadn’t pursued the purchase of the club; they had it as a guarantee,” he said.
“Then they entrusted professionals with bringing Milan back to an economic and then sporting balance and all of this succeeded in an unexpected way, above all for the sporting results. My credit for the Scudetto is zero: it arrived because the people who work there are good.
“From an economic point of view, we did well. I was on the Board of the AC Milan with Yonghong Li to protect the money lent by Elliott, at the time we got less than 200 million in revenues, while this year we’ll be at 350.
“Elliott came out satisfied, making a profit typical of what hedge funds do and selling Milan to a fund with different objectives, a professional in sport, with interventions and growth actions for Milan other than Elliott in mind.
“It’s a new phase. There are a whole series of professionals around us who help us. We look to the future with optimism. In football there are two mountains to climb at the same time: that of sporting results and that of economic results, which are connected to each other and between which we need to keep a balance.”
