The American investment fund Oaktree Capital Management (OCM) is the new owner of Inter Milan after its former owner, a Chinese national, was unable to pay a loan.
OCM took over the award-winning Italian club this Wednesday after the conglomerate Suning Holding Group Co. (SHG) was unable to repay a loan of 395 million euros, the guarantee of which was the majority of Inter’s shares.
“Our main objective is financial and operational stability,” said Alejandro Cano, the head of OCM in Europe, in a writing. In turn, he highlighted that Oaktree was committed to the long-term success of the club and assumes the responsibility it has to the fans.
Inter have won Serie A this season and were runners-up in the Champions League last year. OCM plans to make changes to the club’s Board of Directors, which will include more Italian and European members, according to Bloomberg.
The purchase of Inter by SHG in 2016 became the high point of Chinese investments in European clubs. Great Chinese leaders promoted a plan to transform football in their country by buying shares in famous clubs. But China’s economic difficulties have caused them to lose positions and shares in clubs such as Aston Villa or Atlético de Madrid itself.
It should be remembered that Oaktree, which is based in Los Angeles, granted a loan to SHG in 2021, in the middle of the pandemic, when the economies of all the clubs were in a very delicate moment.
It is not the first time that OCM, a fund that manages assets valued at 192 billion dollars, decides to invest in the world of football. In 2020 he took over the French Stade Malherbe Caen, a shareholding of which he is no longer a part. And Oaktree co-founder Steve Kaplan is a shareholder in Welsh club Swansea City.
