According to Sky Sports and Italian financial media, Inter Milan President Zhang Kangyang has successfully reached a financing agreement with the American capital PIMCO, which will provide a loan of 430 million euros to help Zhang Kangyang repay the 380 million euros of principal and interest of Oaktree Capital, which is due on May 20.
To be sure, at the end of last year, Zhang's initial refinancing plan was agreed in principle by Oaktree Capital, but in April this year, with Inter Milan out of the Champions League, Oaktree Capital began to reverse, demanding that Zhang Kangyang must repay the loan on the agreed date.
Zhang Kangyang was apparently caught off guard by Oaktree's sudden change of fortune, having recently left Italy and engaged in refinancing talks with a number of consortia, but to no avail.
Fortunately, just before the special day of May 20, the American capital PIMCO agreed to lend a helping hand to Zhang Kangyang to solve his urgent needs.
So the next question is, many consortia, including Oaktree Capital, are unwilling to give Zhang Kangyang a chance to refinance, why did PIMCO agree?
According to the Italian financial media "24 Hours of the Sun", one of the most important reasons why PIMCO agreed to Zhang Kangyang's refinancing plan is that they confirmed that there is a Saudi consortium with a strong willingness to buy Inter.
In our more popular terms, PIMCO is to help the Saudi consortium in the front, they first helped Zhang Kangyang to keep Inter Milan, in order to prevent Oaktree Capital from taking over in advance and then selling it cheaply; The second is to let Zhang Kangyang in the next few years, to be precise, it should be three years, and they can use their professional team to continue to manage Inter well; The last point is that it will take time for the Saudi consortium to conduct an in-depth assessment of Inter and review its accounts.
It is worth noting that Zhang Kangyang has been emphasizing the so-called cost reduction and efficiency improvement in recent seasons, that is, to reduce Inter's debt at the lowest cost while improving the club at the competitive level and financially. Because only in this way can the outside world see that Inter has the possibility of making money, see the future and hope, and then there will be "foreign capital" entering Inter.
Of course, as the chairman of Inter, Zhang Kangyang does still have two brushes, he is not a person who talks rhetorically, and Inter has indeed undergone qualitative changes under his control in recent years.
First, debt
According to official figures, Inter's external debt totalled 881 million euros in July 2022, and a year later it became 807 million euros. Despite the decline, Inter are still the most indebted team in Serie A, and they are not one of them.
But only half a year later, according to the first-half financial report provided by the board of directors of Inter, Inter has begun to turn losses into profits, with a net profit of 22.3 million euros in the first half of the year, and it has begun to move towards good.
As a result, some financial experts believe that by the end of March this year, Inter's total debt will drop sharply, or from 807 million euros a year ago to less than 700 million euros, or even up to 650 million euros.
Second, the competitive level
Inter have missed European competitions for many years during the Tohir era, let alone glory, and have won seven trophies since Zhang Kangyang took charge of Inter, including two Serie A titles, two Coppa Italia and three Italian Super Cups, and reached the Champions League final last season.
Third, team building
Zhang Kangyang has always adhered to the concept of "professional people do professional things" at Inter, and he left the details of Inter to Antonello, Marotta and Inzaghi Jr. to take care of. At present, the management team of Inter Milan is very harmonious, and Zhang Kangyang has also locked their contract in 2027 with a fat contract this season.
To sum up, it is precisely because of Zhang Kangyang's leadership at Inter that Inter is thriving, that it is attractive to the Saudi consortium, and then Zhang Kangyang can persuade PIMCO to agree to a loan of 430 million euros to him.
Finally, it must be mentioned that after the successful refinancing of Zhang Kangyang, Inter may be further and further away from Suning in the next three years. But if there is a high-quality Saudi consortium to take a stake in Inter or even buy Inter directly from Zhang Kangyang, it is actually not a bad thing. Optimistically, Inter not only have a chance to get out of their financial troubles, but they could even become the top team in Serie A, leaving Juventus and AC Milan far behind.