Inter owners Suning have given Goldman Sachs the mandate to look for investment in the Nerazzurri because of the impending deadline for repayment of their substantial loan from Oaktree within the next twenty months or so.
This according to today’s print edition of Italian business newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore, who report that the Nerazzurri owners have limited options to raise the cash to pay back the loan to Oaktree, and so they are hoping that a cash injection can come from new business partners.
Suning took on the sizable €275 billion loan from Oaktree in order to guarantee operating liquidity at the Nerazzurri amid serious ongoing financial struggles caused by the pandemic, but this debt burden represents a problem in and of itself.
The deadline for repaying the loan to Oaktree is in a year and eight months, and in the event that Suning do not pay it back, control of the club could pass into the hands of the US fund.
Suning are extremely limited in the amount of cash that they can put into the club from China, which limits their options for how they can work towards repaying the loan, and this is a primary reason that they are actively looking for new investment.