The Zhang family and Suning are close to securing their future with Inter by agreeing a deal with American fund PIMCO to pay off the loan to Oaktree.
Multiple reports today starting with Il Sole 24 Ore (the Italian equivalent of the Financial Times) are confident that an agreement will be reached with Pimco for them to pay off that loan with effectively a new loan.
Suning and their holding company had taken out a high-interest loan with Oaktree Capital Management for €275m in 2021 to help them through the pandemic’s effect on global finance and sport.
That was guaranteed by Suning’s 68.5 per cent stake in Inter as collateral and if they defaulted on the repayment on May 20, it would give Oaktree the right to take control of the Serie A club.
Including interest, the sum they must repay on May 20 is €385m.
Suning had tried alternatives
Suning had tried to negotiate an extension on the loan with Oaktree, to no avail, so their Plan B was to secure a different loan to pay off that sum.
It is not finalised yet and will reportedly take a couple of weeks to get all the paperwork completed, but should be in time to avoid defaulting.
It will give Suning time to keep hold of Inter for a while longer, but unless fresh investment is found or revenue vastly increases, it could just be kicking the can down the road.