AC Milan have had a statement published in this morning’s newspapers aiming to clarify the relationship between RedBird Capital and Elliott Management.
As a reminder, when Gerry Cardinale’s RedBird bought Milan from Elliott in 2022, he only paid €650m for a deal that was valued at a total of €1.2bn. The remaining €550m was transformed into a ‘vendor loan’, granted by Elliott to RedBird, with an interest rate of around 7%.
The repayment deadline was set for August 2025 and there was a lot of speculation about whether Cardinale would be able to repay it and whether Elliott were pulling some strings as a result, given they still had exposure.
However, in December it was announced that the loan was refinanced, so now it must be repaid by 2028. Pushing the deadline back three years is certainly helpful for Cardinale, who could turn to investors to help.
Milan have released a note in today’s edition of the newspaper La Repubblica (via MilanPress) as a clarification regarding what was reported yesterday by the newspaper itself regarding the balance of power within the club between the old and new ownerships.
La Repubblica stated yesterday: “The atmosphere at Milan remains tense, with the Curva Sud empty for the first quarter of an hour, and then the chants for Cardinale to sell the club are renewed, even though the influence of the Elliott fund is increasingly evident, beyond the maxi-loan with which it has exercised a strong financial and market weight since 2022.
“Cardinale, the controlling shareholder, has not been seen at San Siro since September. Furthermore, there are no RedBird men on the board of directors of the company for the new stadium, yet Cardinale’s fund boasts specific skills. Instead, the Milan financial director Cocirio, a member of Elliott, appears there.
This morning, a note in the same paper reads as follows: “Regarding the relationships between Elliott, RedBird and Milan, AC Milan specifies that:
– RedBird Capital, the owner, has reduced the principal amount of the loan from Elliott to €489m, confirming Elliott’s position as a pure lender, with its presence on the board of directors limited to 2 of its 12 representatives.
– MI-Stadio is limited to managing the operations of the Meazza in the current situation and is not involved in the new stadium project, jointly carried out by AC Milan and FC Internazionale Milano.
The Board of Directors of Mi-Stadio is currently composed of 3 members: Francesco Ferrini, independent, president; Massimiliano Catanese, Co-AD, representing Inter; Stefano Cocirio, Co-AD, representing AC Milan.
Before joining AC Milan, where he is Chief Financial Officer, Stefano Cocirio definitively cut off all his relationships with Elliott after having worked there for more than 7 years.”
