Inter’s owners Suning have no option but to sell the club following new tough restrictions from the Chinese government, at least according to one leading Italian journalist and Nerazzurri fan.
Inter are widely reported to be suffering liquidity issues due to revenue lost because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but it is also because China have imposed new guidelines on Suining regarding the exportation of capital outside the country.
BC Partners have been heavily linked with buying into Inter for weeks, but there are many other international private equity funds interested too.
“It is an unpleasant situation,” TV presenter and die-hard Interista Enrico Mentana remarked in an interview with Italian news outlet FCInter1908.it today.
“The Suning Group, which we will always have to thank for their investments, can no longer deal with Inter because of the orders of the Chinese government, and you do not want to mess around with them.”
A report from Milano Finanza on Wednesday revealed Inter had attracted interest from an anonymous Italian businessman last weekend.
Mentana seemed sceptical about the prospect of the Nerazzurri finding new owners locally, though.
“Given that Suning consider Inter as a distant and peripheral asset, one does not even dream of wondering whether they can find a buyer in Italy,” he admitted.
“Instead they have put Inter up for sale among various funds, whose statutory purpose is, as is known, to financially enhance the company and then resell it to make a capital gain.”
Mentana suggested an idea several years ago which involved a group of VIP Inter supporters, Interspac, becoming minority shareholders at Inter.
Asked again about the possibility of a consortium investing in the Nerazzurri, he added: “It would have been silly to talk about a supporters consortium when Suning were thriving, but now perhaps we can start discussing it again.”
