SPORT DADDY NEWS SPORT
BEIJING — Retail giant Suning Commerce Group Co. 002024, -3.01% of China said it is spending €270 million ($307 million) to buy about 70% of Inter Milan, the first deal by Chinese investors for control of a top European soccer team.
Zhang Jindong, Suning’s chairman, described the acquisition of the Italian club as a significant milestone in Chinese soccer history, and called China Inter Milan’s second home.
Inter Milan, founded in 1908, has won 18 Italian Serie A league titles and three UEFA Champions League trophies, but has been struggling to keep up with other top-notch soccer clubs in Europe after winning the European Champions League in 2010.
The team finished fourth in Serie A this season and hasn’t qualified for the Champions League since 2012. That year, the club said its holding company had reached an agreement for “the acquisition of a stake in F.C. Internazionale SpA by a group of Chinese investors,” but the deal never came to fruition.
In 2013, a 70% stake in Inter Milan was sold to an Indonesian consortium led by Erick Thohir, an Indonesian businessman who is now the club’s president. Thohir will now hold about 30% of the club, according to Suning.
By PEI LI
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