Inter owners Suning are working to try and repay the massive loan from US-based fund Oaktree Capital before it comes due in just over one year.
This according to today’s print edition of Milan-based newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport, via FCInterNews, who report that the Nerazzurri owners’ efforts are ongoing to find a solution well before the expiry date for the €275 million loan in May of next year.
The expiry date for the Oaktree loan currently hangs over Suning like a dark cloud at Inter.
The loan, which was taken on as an emergency measure in May of 2021 in order to cover operating liquidity at the Nerazzurri, came with a three-year deadline, and with all interest included Suning must pay €350 million in total to the US-based fund.
Should the Nerazzurri owners default on paying when the time comes, then they will find themselves having to hand over control of the club to Oaktree, as Inter was offered up as collateral when the loan was agreed in 2021.
This is, of course, an eventuality which Suning would have no intention of arriving at.
As such, the Inter owners are working to find a solution.
One possibility that has been mooted has been that Suning could finally be forced into selling Inter, with Bahrain-based fund InvestCorp and Italian businessman and current Leeds United owner Andrea Radrizzani among those linked with an interest.
However, according to the Gazzetta, the current owners are still hard at work trying to find a solution for refinancing of the debt.
The Inter owners are reported to be working with US-based investment bank Goldman Sachs to refinance the Oaktree loan.
In any event, the newspaper notes, there is little chance that Suning would allow the situation to get too close to the loan’s expiry date without a solution, either refinancing or a sale, as losing control of the club to Oaktree would be considered a worst case scenario.
