AC Milan's Chinese buyers on
Tuesday paid Silvio Berlusconi's Fininvest a second instalment
of a 100-million-euro downpayment agreed last month in the sale
of the seven-time European champions.
Sino-Europe Sports Investment Management Changxing paid 85
million euros, following their initial August 5 installment of
15 million euros.
The deal will be finalised by the end of the year.
Berlusconi's Fininvest holding company said on August 5
that it had signed a preliminary contract to sell 99.93% of AC
Milan to the Chinese consortium.
The agreement values AC Milan at 740 million euros with
an estimated indebtedness of approximately 220 million euros.
The announcement marked the end of an era for Italian
soccer.
The club have won five of their seven European champions
titles and eight of their 18 Serie A titles since three-time
premier Berlusconi bought the club in 1986.
But there have been no additions to the trophy cabinet in
the last five years, with Berlusconi of late unwilling to outbid
the competition for the world's best players, as he did on the
transfer market like in the late 1980s and early '90s, to have
the likes of Dutch trio Marco Van Basten, Ruud Gullit and Frank
Rijkaard.
Berlusconi had said he was looking to find new investors
as he was no longer capable to providing the cash needed to put
the Italian giants at the top of world football on his own.
Indeed, Fininvest said the new owners were committed to
"significant capital increases and liquidity injections" in
Milan amounting to 350 million euros over a three-year period.
The statement said the investors, represented by Han Li,
operate through the management company Sino-Europe Sports
Investment Management Changxing Co. Ltd and include Haixia
Capital and State Development and Investment Corporation SDIC.
"During the entire negotiation process, the signature of
the contract and the undertakings assumed thereby, Fininvest has
always had as a priority the objective which was clearly
stated by Mr. Berlusconi: to provide AC Milan, through an
appropriate ownership structure, with greater financial
resources now more essential for competing with the top football
clubs of the world," the Fininvest statement said.
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