Thomas Zilliacus Had Made £1.2Bn Offer To Buy Inter Milan

Finnish businessman Thomas Zilliacus has made an offer worth £1.2 billion to buy Inter Milan from Suning.

This according to UK outlet Manchester Evening News, who report that the Finn is being backed by his investment firm consisting mainly of investors from the US.

Last summer, Zilliacus was one of the names to emerge among parties interested in buying Inter.

The likes of Bahrain-based fund InvestCorp and Italian businessman Andrea Radrizzani had also been linked with bids.

The future of Inter’s ownership has been the topic of much speculation in recent weeks.

This is the result of the situation behind the scenes with current owners Suning.

The Chinese company took on a massive loan from US-based fund Oaktree Capital in 2021. Given that the loan was taken on to cover operating costs at Inter, Suning put the club up as collateral.

And the due date for that loan is this May. Therefore, if Suning cannot pay the loan back including interest, control of the Nerazzurri would pass into the hands of Oaktree.

That means that Suning have two other realistic options. One would be to refinance the Oaktree loan – something the Inter owners have indicated they want to do.

The other, however, would be to sell Inter.

According to MEN, Zilliacus has already made a significant offer to Suning.

They report that the total value of the Finn’s bid would be around £1.2 billion.

This would be equal to around €1.4 billion. Considering that Suning reportedly want a bid of at least €1 billion, Zilliacus’s offer would potentially meet the Nerazzurri owners’ valuation.

Then, that bid would also exceed the €1.2 billion that RedBird Capital paid to buy AC Milan from Elliott Management.

MEN note that Zilliacus’s entire focus is on Inter, and the Italian football market.

The Finn had been among the parties with an interest in purchasing Premier League giants Manchester United. However, he has fully shifted towards Inter and Serie A.

Now, it could come down to whether or not Suning will accept Zilliacus’s offer.

And considering the looming date of the Oaktree loan, a decision cannot be too far away from the current Inter owners.