AC Milan sale confirmed

Silvio Berlusconi has agreed to sell AC Milan to Chinese investors under a deal set to end three decades in charge of the club.

Fininvest, the Berlusconi family’s private holding company, announced that an agreement had been signed between the media tycoon and the prospective buyers.

The deal values Milan, which has some 220 million euros of debt, at 740 million euros, and will lead to a cash injection of 350 million euros over three seasons, Fininvest said in a statement.

A total of 100 million euros of the sale price is to be paid on completion, which is scheduled to happen by the end of this year.

Chinese and Italian authorities will have to rubber stamp the deal but this is not expected to raise any significant obstacles.

The preliminary accord was signed by Danilo Pellegrino, the Fininvest CEO, and Han Li, a representative of the Chinese investors.

The group has been named as Sino-Europe Sports Investment Management Changxing, and includes businessman Yonghong Li, the Haixia Capital Capital group and other private and public Chinese companies.

Berlusconi turns 80 in September, has recently had open heart surgery and has been seeking to offload part or all of his stake in Milan for over two years.

It now means both of Milan’s clubs, Milan and Inter, will be Chinese owned. Chinese investment group Suning bought Inter in June.