An anti-Mafia official at Milan's city council has asked to know the identities of Chinese investors who recently bought soccer club AC Milan, and says town hall will notify anti-money laundering authorities if it does not get answers. In August, former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi signed a preliminary deal to sell the Serie A club to a group of Chinese led by investment fund Haixia Capital and entrepreneur Yonghong Li. But the full make-up of the consortium was not disclosed. David Gentili, a politician from the centre-left Democratic Party who heads the council's anti-Mafia commission, told reporters on Wednesday that the council had a duty to request information about the investors. He said that if the information was not be disclosed, his commission would notify the Bank of Italy's unit responsible for fighting money-laundering. Silvio Berlusconi has sold 99.93 percent of his shares in AC Milan to a different Chinese consortium than the one that Fininvest have been negotiating with for several weeks.
An inability to provide funds had meant consistent delays by the group represented by Galatioto Sports Partners, who have now been kicked out of the race to buy Milan altogether, as have the Fosun International investors helmed by agent Jorge Mendes. Gazzetta World report that instead, Investment Management Changxing, a new Sino-European enterprise represented by Chinese businessman Li Yonghong but backed by unnamed investors and Chinese state funds from Haixa Capital, have paid 740 million euros for the Serie A giants, a number which includes assuming the 220m of club debt. The remaining 0.07 percent will be retained by the Berlusconi family, after 30 years of the former Italian prime minister running the club. Berlusconi has even taken measures to insert clauses in the takeover contract to ensure investment in the team so that the ailing-Diavolo can return to challenging for European titles. That will total 350m euros over three years, of which 100m will be pledged with immediate effect.
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