Inter agree multi-million euro loan with US investment firm

Inter’s Chinese owners Suning have completed a financing transaction worth 275 million euros ($336 million) with US investment firm Oaktree Capital, according to reports in Italy on Thursday.

Inter released a statement through Italian news agency ANSA confirming the cash injection designed to get the club through their current financial difficulties.

“Following a due diligence process and with a common long-term vision for the project, today a financing operation based on shares with funds run by Oaktree Capital Management L.P. was finalised,” the statement read.

“With this financing, the shareholders will continue to sustain FC Internazionale Milano, with the objective of overcoming the difficulties and opportunities lost during the Covid period.”

The club’s shareholding structure does not change, and through a Luxembourg subsidiary, Chinese electronics retailer Suning Holdings Group remains the owner of 68 percent of the capital.

Suning bought a majority stake in the 19-time Serie A champions in 2016 from Indonesian business tycoon Erick Thohir, who took over three years earlier from Italian billionaire Massimo Moratti, whose family controls the oil refiner Saras Group.

The future ownership of the club has been in doubt with Inter making losses of 100 million euros last season mainly due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Suning Group shut down their Chinese club Jiangsu FC in February just months after it won the Chinese Super League title.

Talk of a sale has been denied in recent months by Suning who estimate Inter’s value at one billion euros.

Inter became the first foreign-owned club to win the Italian league this season, ending Juventus’s nine-year grasp on the title.