The efforts from Inter owner Steven Zhang to renegotiate a giant loan from Oaktree have been in vain so far. The May 20th deadline is rapidly approaching. The matter has big ramifications for the club since it was used as collateral
According to Corriere dello Sport (via Calciomercato), the American fund turned down the latest proposal from the Chinese business. It’s s starting to consider assuming control of the team by buying the majority stake for market value as envisaged by the agreement.
Zhang reportedly offered to pay just the interest, which amounts to €100M, in two months and postpone the deadline for the rest to 2026 or 2027, raising the rate from 12 to 16 or even 20 percent, €45/60M annually. His attempts have fallen on deaf ears for now.
Suning believed that Oaktree had no interest in taking over Inter and no readymade buyers to flip it, but things might have changed. The fund fears the value of the outfit might decrease under the current ownership, hurting the possible future plans.
Therefore, it is evaluating to intervene directly to make it more palatable and resell it down the line. It’d be the same thing that happened to Milan in the ownership change from Yonghong Li to Elliott. The fund stayed in charge for a couple of years before the RedBird Capital takeover. The decision hasn’t been made yet. Considering that Zhang and Oaktree are primarily bargaining a new deadline, the agreement could still arrive at the 11th hour.
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