Chinese investors to buy 15% of Italian soccer club
By Fu Chenghao |
00:49 UTC+8 August 3, 2012
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
A GROUP of Chinese investors is to pay 55 million euros (US$67 million) for a 15 percent stake in Inter Milan, becoming the second-biggest shareholder of the Italian premier league football club.
The deal will give the 104-year-old club a new stadium to be built by China Railway Construction Corp, which Reuters said yesterday would be the main partner in the first such investment from Chinese mainland in a major foreign sports team.
Asian sports marketing company QLS will take a token stake, according to a source close to the situation.
The market reacted negatively yesterday after Bloomberg News also identified one of the buyers as China Railway Construction, sending its shares down 2.07 percent in Shanghai and 3.46 percent in Hong Kong.
However, CRC denied the report after the markets closed.
"Neither the company nor any of its majority controlled companies and associated companies has had negotiations with Internazionale Milano or the shareholders of Internazionale Milano in respect of acquisition of equity interest in Internazionale Milano," CRC Chairman Meng Fengchao said in a statement.
But the soccer club said that China Railway 15th Bureau Group Co, a unit of CRC, will work with it to build a new stadium to be completed by 2017.
Over the next few months, the parties will jointly select potentially suitable locations, define the project team and start the filing process to obtain the required authorizations, Inter said.
"FC Internazionale welcomes the new shareholders," Inter said in a statement, without identifying the Chinese investors.
"The main aim is to build a new stadium, that's what the agreement with China Railway is really about," Massimo Moratti, Inter's owner and president, told Xinhua news agency. "The Chinese investors will contribute to the strengthening of the club, but presently our main objective is the construction of the new Inter stadium."
The club and arch-rivals AC Milan, owned by former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, currently share the 80,065 capacity San Siro Stadium, which is owned by the city of Milan.
The deal will give the 104-year-old club a new stadium to be built by China Railway Construction Corp, which Reuters said yesterday would be the main partner in the first such investment from Chinese mainland in a major foreign sports team.
Asian sports marketing company QLS will take a token stake, according to a source close to the situation.
The market reacted negatively yesterday after Bloomberg News also identified one of the buyers as China Railway Construction, sending its shares down 2.07 percent in Shanghai and 3.46 percent in Hong Kong.
However, CRC denied the report after the markets closed.
"Neither the company nor any of its majority controlled companies and associated companies has had negotiations with Internazionale Milano or the shareholders of Internazionale Milano in respect of acquisition of equity interest in Internazionale Milano," CRC Chairman Meng Fengchao said in a statement.
But the soccer club said that China Railway 15th Bureau Group Co, a unit of CRC, will work with it to build a new stadium to be completed by 2017.
Over the next few months, the parties will jointly select potentially suitable locations, define the project team and start the filing process to obtain the required authorizations, Inter said.
"FC Internazionale welcomes the new shareholders," Inter said in a statement, without identifying the Chinese investors.
"The main aim is to build a new stadium, that's what the agreement with China Railway is really about," Massimo Moratti, Inter's owner and president, told Xinhua news agency. "The Chinese investors will contribute to the strengthening of the club, but presently our main objective is the construction of the new Inter stadium."
The club and arch-rivals AC Milan, owned by former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, currently share the 80,065 capacity San Siro Stadium, which is owned by the city of Milan.
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