It is looking more and more probable that Inter owners Suning will have to sell the club given the pressure of the looming deadline of the massive loan they took on from Oaktree Capital in 2021.
This according to today’s print edition of Turin-based newspaper Tuttosport, via FCInterNews, who report that the due date for that €275 million loan at the end of May of next year is likely to force the current Nerazzurri owners’ hand.
Suning have always indicated that their priority is to keep control at Inter, and that whilst they are interested in taking on minority investment to financially support the club, they are not prioritizing an outright sale.
However, no minority investment has yet materialized, and in the meantime the Chinese company edge closer and closer to the due date for the massive loan taken on from US-based fund Oaktree in 2021.
That loan, which Suning took on in order to have operating liquidity at a point when Inter’s pandemic-related financial problems were at their worst in 2021, was for €275 million, but given that it is a PIK loan with a 12% rate, will see the Nerazzurri owners having to pay a total of €350 million when it comes due.
Suning’s options at this stage, a little over twelve months away from the due date of May 30, 2024, would be to find investment, refinance the loan, sell the club, or default on it and see Inter pass into the hands of Oaktree given that the club was offered up as collateral on the loan.
Given that minority investment has not yet been forthcoming, and refinancing could prove difficult amid a financial climate which has seen interest rates rising, Tuttosport notes that the latter two possibilities would seem the likelier ones at the moment.
On the one hand, Suning could sell the Nerazzurri under the looming pressure of the due date of the Oaktree loan, as they must make a decision on their stance.
On the other, the newspaper notes, if the current owners do not sell the club, then control of Inter will simply pass into the hands of Oaktree.
The US-based fund have no interest in taking over the running of the Nerazzurri from Suning as Elliott Management did of AC Milan from Li Yonghong in 2018.
Accordingly, a sale of Inter would also be the likely outcome in this scenario, but it would be Oaktree rather than Suning who would be putting the club up for sale.
