AC Milan's potential owner in talks with China Citic Bank for loan
According to reliable economic journalist Carlo Festa, the Chinese entrepreneur is in talks with China Citic Bank to get part of the money he needs to finalize the deal, here’s a translation of what Festa has written in his blog on the Sole 24 Ore called ‘The Insider’
“Sino-Europe Sports are finalizing deals with Chinese entrepreneurs and banks in order to get all the money they need to finalize the takeover of AC Milan, the deadline day is the 20th of October.”
“Il Sole 24 Ore has learned that Yonghong Li is in talks with China Citic Bank, one of the biggest banks of the country, to have part of € 420 million he needs to close the deal. Yonghong Li has already paid a deposit of € 100 million which is being retained in a bank account of UniCredit bank.”
“The two parties [Citic and Mr. Li] are still in talks and rumours suggest that an agreement has not been found yet.”
“It is not the first time that the Chinese bank is linked with helping potential buyers of AC Milan. Mr Bee was also in talks with the same institute last year as Citic bank was supposed to give the Thai entrepreneur an economic help, if he had found commercial partners to buy a minority stake in the club.”
“A huge difference between Mr. Bee and Mr Li is that the first one wanted to buy a minority share in the club and had evaluated AC Milan € 1.2 billion. Mr. Li, on the other hand, plans to buy the 100% stakes in the club for € 700 million, figures which are more in line with the current market value of the brand.”
“There are, however, some similarities between the two entrepreneurs who are not big names in the Asian economy and whose personal assets’ nature is still unclear.”
“The involvement of Citic confirms at least that new owners aim to enter the stock market with the Serie A club.”
“Haixia Capital and Jilin Yongda Group are believed to be potential partners of Mr. Li. The consortium should be composed by 7-8 Asian entrepreneurs, whilst the rest of money should be put by China Citic Bank even if it is still unclear which guarantees the Chinese bank will be given.”
“The final objective of this financial operation is to enter the stock market with AC Milan.”
Translated and adapted by Lorenzo Bettoni @lorebetto