According to the latest news from the Italian media "Milan Sport" and Inter team reporter Danielle Mari, Inter President Zhang Kangyang and an American capital have reached a financing agreement with an amount of up to 400 million euros for three years, and the news is expected to be officially announced before May 20 this year.
It is worth noting that although the financial fund cooperated with Zhang Kangyang is also American capital, it is not the previous Oaktree Group, but a fund consortium called PIMCO, the full name in Chinese is Pacific Investment Management Company, which is headquartered in California, USA.
What is certain is that Zhang's new financing is aimed at repaying his previous financing loan to Oaktree. In May 2021, in order to help the Nerazzurri defend themselves against the negative impact of the global virus, Zhang Kangyang borrowed 275 million euros from Oaktree Capital with Inter as collateral at an interest rate of 12% for three years.
Now that the loan term is about to expire on May 20 this year, Zhang Kangyang needs to repay a total of 380 million euros in principal and interest to Oaktree. With Inter's current financial situation, Zhang Kangyang will definitely not be able to raise such a huge amount of money. As a result, he proposed to Oaktree to pay €105 million in interest upfront and refinance €275 million in principal.
Unfortunately, given the uncertainty of Inter's future, Oaktree finally rejected the latter's request after many negotiations with Zhang Kangyang, demanding that the Suning young owner must repay the loan on time, otherwise Oaktree will take over Inter according to the contract and find a new buyer for him.
To tell the truth, Zhang Kangyang and Suning behind him are also under deep pressure for Inter's debt crisis, and they have also tried to sell Inter to get out of trouble in recent years, but due to the global economic downturn and Inter's own limited profitability, there are very few interested buyers.
It is worth mentioning that the Finnish billionaire Ziliacus was infinitely close to Inter, and he tried to buy Inter from Suning together with Qatari billionaire Sheikh Jassim at the end of last year, but the offer was only 1 billion euros, which was far from the 1.3 billion euros requested by Zhang Kangyang, and finally had no choice but to withdraw.
At the beginning of April this year, the Italian media La Repubblica also revealed that the Saudi royal family had the intention to buy Inter, and had hired professionals to review Inter's accounts to assess the possibility of purchase.
Although this matter is not groundless, but with the current football environment in Italy and Inter's heavy debt, the Saudi tycoon obviously still does not look down on the Nerazzurri, and the final purchase is only rumored.
It is worth noting that Zhang Kangyang has no way to sell Inter for the time being, and he can only choose to move forward with a weight and try to solve the problem through refinancing. As for what netizens said before, selling Lautaro, Barella and other players to pay off debts is a good way, but Zhang Kangyang obviously has his own considerations.
One is that if all the star players are sold, then Inter is likely to have a serious decline at the competitive level, without the blessing of results, and the income such as tickets and sponsorships will also drop significantly, so that the overall value of Inter will be lower.
The second is that even if Zhang Kangyang agrees to sell the star players in the team, there are almost no teams that can make a suitable offer for them now, and even a scandal is rare.
Therefore, Zhang Kangyang can only repay the loan of Oaktree Group through refinancing to ensure his future control of Inter.
Fortunately, Inter's management members, including Marotta, Antonello, and Inzaghi Jr., are still more optimistic about Zhang Kangyang, the first two have renewed their contracts with Inter until 2027, and Inzaghi Jr. is also very willing to continue to stay in Meazza, and they have recently expressed their support for Zhang Kangyang in different ways.
To tell the truth, Inter Milan has indeed made great progress in recent years under the leadership of Zhang Kangyang, but it is a pity that they cannot have a good backer like Juventus. Therefore, in the case that Suning has no way to inject additional funds, relying only on Inter's own hematopoiesis to maintain it is not a long-term solution after all!