Sale of Milan, RedBird overtakes Investcorp: offer of 1.3 billion, closing soon

The American fund surpasses Investcorp and becomes the most authoritative candidate to take over Milan. Elliott would remain in the club as a minority shareholder. Confirmations for Maldini and Massara

After a few weeks of almost absolute silence (understandable) and stalemate (apparent), the transfer of AC Milan’s company resumes force. A lot of vigor. So vigorous that the overtaking – clear, probably definitive – of the American investment company RedBird Capital Partners on Investcorp, a Bahrain fund that until recently seemed to be in the pipeline for the acquisition of the Rossoneri club, after having concluded positively the due diligence.

Free field

The hot days for the Scudetto have therefore also become hot days for the Devil’s buying and selling, based on three decisive factors. The first: RedBird would have raised its offer from 1 billion to 1.3 billion euros. The second: the financial structure of the operation presented by RedBird would be more convincing than that of Investcorp, which would in fact leave the green light free for the American fund. Third, and certainly not least: Investcorp has frozen the deal with Elliott. The offer of 1.18 billion euros was therefore not considered sufficient by Elliott even if the crux of the matter would not therefore be the total amount of the operation. At least not only. But the way in which the operation would be carried out and, probably, the degree of involvement of Elliott.

Experience

The Singer fund, in fact, would remain within the club as a minority shareholder. One way to ensure business continuity (although RedBird, unlike Investcorp, already has considerable experience in the world of sport) and, at the same time, still have a say in the stadium issue. The timings? Signing, or signature of the preliminary contract, between May and June. So, if everything is confirmed in the next few days, here we are. Founded in 2014, RedBird manages $ 6 billion in capital (which will soon become 11) between financial services and the world of sports. Last year, for example, he had acquired a stake of just over 10% in Fenway Sports Group (FSG), the owners of Liverpool, for 750 million dollars. We were talking about business continuity. Well, this would also be guaranteed through the confirmation of the management of the sports area, namely the director Maldini and the director Massara.

ttn-14