For Inter fans
For Inter Club
For the 31-year-old Inter president Zhang Kangyang
It was an unforgettable Champions League night
Inter beat AC Milan 1-0 in the second leg of the semifinals
Eliminated their city rivals 3-0 over two legs
Inter reached the Champions League final again after 13 years!
For friends who care about finance, there must be such a question in their hearts: Can Inter's excellent results solve Zhang Kangyang's debt problem?
Zhang Kangyang is known as the "Prince of Suning", his father is Suning boss Zhang Jindong, he was young, he bought Carrefour and Inter Milan in his 20s, and the popularity remained high. But it is such a figure with a head and a face, who was reported by foreign media at the beginning of this year to become a lai, which is really shocking. The news mentioned that Zhang Kangyang is being chased by China Construction Bank Global because of a long-term arrears of 2 billion yuan.
The reason for this is that in 2020, CCB provided a US$165 million loan to Great Matrix Limited, a company registered in the British Virgin Islands, wholly owned and controlled by Zhang Kangyang, and subscribed for US$85 million of notes issued by Great Matrix with a 7% par interest. On July 5, 2021, the loan matured. Zhang Kangyang failed to repay the loan on time. After that, CCB first sued Zhang Kangyang in Hong Kong.
On 19 July 2022, the website of the High Court of Hong Kong disclosed the judgment for the first time. Zhang lost the case and had to repay a loan of US$278 million (about 2 billion yuan) from China Construction Bank (Asia) Limited. After losing the case in Hong Kong, Zhang Kangyang did not honor the judgment. Since then, CCB has had to launch judicial debt collection procedures in the United States and Milan, Italy.
As Zhang Jindong's son, why does Zhang Kangyang owe CCB 2 billion? Behind this is related to the big rout of Suning's small shop. In 2017, as the "super entrance of all retail formats" that Zhang Jindong had high hopes for, Suning Small Store was born. In 2018, Zhang Kangyang took the money borrowed from the Hong Kong Construction Bank and quickly increased his capital in Suning's small store. After obtaining the capital increase, Suning Xiaodian continued to expand savagely. Behind the crazy expansion is a huge test of the capital chain and a huge test of operation and management.
Data show that Suning small store lost 300 million yuan in 2018. In the first half of 2019, it soared directly to 2.2 billion yuan. In the second half of 2019, Suning's small store stopped working, and began to lay off employees and close stores. Due to the tight capital chain, Suning Xiaodian did not continue to pay after paying the last payment to Suning.com on September 29, 2021. Since then, Suning.com has stopped supplying Suning small stores. Although everyone is a family, no one can live without money. Today, Suning.com, an important piece of Suning's assets in the A-share market, has become ST.com, and Suning.com, the former A-share cash cow, has had a hard time in recent years, with a total loss of 63.8 billion yuan in the past three years.
Can Inter Milan save Suning?
On June 7, 2016, in the boom of Chinese investment in European football, Suning Sports purchased 68.55% of the shares of Inter Milan Club for 270 million euros. In October 2018, Zhang Kangyang became the 21st president in the history of Inter Milan.
Football is really a money-burning job. Inter Milan's official financial report shows that the club lost 245.6 million euros in fiscal 2021 and 102.4 million euros in fiscal 2020. Revenue for fiscal 2022 increased by 20.5% year-on-year to EUR 431 million, but overall losses remained EUR 140 million. At this point, Inter Milan has lost money for the fourth consecutive year.
For Inter, who are struggling financially, reaching the final of the Champions League means glory and good income. If Inter win the Champions League, the prize money will exceed 100 million euros, and the ticket revenue will also increase significantly. But Inter's bonus income and ticket revenue will be used for the operation of the team, Zhang Kangyang and even Suning to solve the debt problem, perhaps selling Inter as a whole is the best choice.
According to the latest news from the Italian media "Turin Sport Newspaper", a number of investment companies have shown strong interest in acquiring Inter shares, and Suning hopes to increase the transaction price of Inter Club through multiple price increases between competitors, thereby alleviating the group's financial crisis to the greatest extent. In August last year, AC Milan was acquired by American investment group Redbird Capital for 1.2 billion euros, setting a record price for European football clubs outside the Premier League.
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Talk about the true nature of heroes in investing
At 12 noon on May 12 (this Friday), the "Yicai Knows" platform will continue to open a wonderful live class, and Yan Dan, host of Yicai Broadcast, and Xu Shirong, chief investment advisor of securities firms, will bring a live class sharing with the theme of "Talking about the True Colors of Heroes in Investment". Limited-time coupons and national tide snacks will also be sent during the live broadcast!
Author: Xu Jinhua
Editor: Yan Dan
Executive Producer: Wang Junji
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