Suning announced to have secured a €275M loan from the Oaktree Capital Management, a fund that handles assets for €122B, to support Inter. The money will technically come from Great Horizon, the Zhang holding that owns 68,55% of the club. The Chinese conglomerate will have three years to pay it back; otherwise, Oaktree will take over, the site Calcio e Finanza reports.
Hong Kong fund LionRock will retain 31% of the team for now. The money will be poured directly into the team to pay the wages for the 2020/21 season and for the start of the next one, and to bankroll the transfer market plans.
Oaktree was founded in 1995 and is listed on the New York Stock Exchange. They have 16 offices across the globe and invested around €7B in Italy in various sectors, more recently in the hospitality business. Il Sole 24 Ore reported that Federico Ghizzoni, the former head of Unicredit, one of the biggest European banks, could enter the new board of directors.
The side has been used as collateral, therefore Oaktree would become the majority stakeholder if Suning did not re-pay the loan in three years. Considering the €1B evaluation previously made by the Chinese ownership, the fund would spend half of that sum, including the current debts.
Chairman Steven Zhang will now focus on more technical matters, like the future of Antonio Conte and the pending extensions of Lautaro Martinez, Stefan De Vrij, and Marcelo Brozovic.