Inter owners Suning could sell LionRock Capital’s shares in the club to a group of private equity funds and retain control of the Nerazzurri, according to a report in Italy tonight.
Earlier on Thursday, an article in the Financial Times said three funds – British firm BC Partners, Swedish company EQT and US-based Arctos Sports Partners – were in talks with the Chinese retail giants to buy into the Nerazzurri, either for a minority or a majority stake.
It was then reported separately by Reuters that Suning were looking to sell up to a 40% stake valued at €500 million.
A story from Italian newspaper La Repubblica has now suggested they may end up selling LionRock’s 31.05% to a group of interested funds, in a move which would enable them to remain majority shareholders at Inter.
Their report points out that, if Suning were to sell a 40% stake to BC Partners or another fund, without touching LionRock’s shares, Suning would effectively become minority shareholders at Inter – albeit only as a formality, given that LionRock answer to Suning anyway.
They may therefore consider a different strategy to recruit new investors and inject fresh capital at Inter, now that they are unable to add money themselves due to fresh restrictions from the Chinese government on overseas investments in Europe.
La Repubblica’s article then went on to predict further changes to the make-up of the Nerazzurri’s board, following the resignation of chief financial offer Tim Williams in November due to personal reasons.
This is because, were Suning to go through with selling off shares to private equity funds, their new partners would most likely request to have their own representatives on the board.