AC Milan announces shareholders' meeting ahead of Chinese sale
Silvio Berlusconi's holding company is selling the club to Sino-Europe Sports
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Your support makes all the difference.AC Milan has announced a shareholders' meeting for Friday to complete the sale of the club.
Closing the sale to a group of Chinese investors has been scheduled for Friday since a postponement was agreed at the end of last year by Silvio Berlusconi's holding company and Sino-Europe Sports.
The meeting is a formality as Berlusconi owns 99.93 percent of the club, which he purchased 30 years ago.
The deal with the Chinese group, which includes the participation of a Chinese state investment fund, values the club at 740 million euros (around $800 million), and requires the investors to spend 350 million euros over three years on improvements.
A press conference is expected on Saturday.
Berlusconi has long been trying to sell the club and his family’s investment vehicle had been in exclusive talks with Sino-Europe Sports since last July. Since then, the company has been conducting detailed analysis of the club’s finances for several months.
Look East
Chinese owned or part owned clubs
"Milan now has chosen this path toward China," Berlusconi told La Gazzetta dello Sport’s website last year.
“It’s an important decision to give AC Milan to someone able to make it be a protagonist in Italy, Europe and globally. I didn’t discuss price, I’ve accepted what they offered me.”
Supporters of the famous club will hope Berlusconi stays true to an earlier remark he made, stating that a condition of the sale was the new owners invest at least €400 million (£343 million) in the club over the next two seasons.
Milan have struggled in recent seasons and their team, who are not playing in European competition this season because of an underwhelming 7th place Serie A finish last year, are a shadow of the glamorous squad that last won the Champions League in 2007.
The club failed to replace departing world-class stars such as Andriy Shevchenko, Gennaro Gattuso and Alessandro Nesta and have struggled to compete in the transfer market.
Should the deal go through, Chinese investors would be majority holders of both Milan teams following last year's investment by Suning Holdings in crosstown rival Inter Milan.
Additional reporting by Associated Press
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