Inter's Financial Situation

[K.I.]

The sad thing is you cannot be considered a top club if you don’t have money to spend. The history that we acquired we acquired by spending big. Every top club has done the same at some point. People might call it an exaggeration but I’m not just worried about this season, I’m worried about the future. Let’s cut the shit we’re not even going to be able to compete with the likes of Leicester, Wolves and Aston Villa in terms of money spent and it won’t be long before Juve and Milan in particular will open up a massive gap on us

LOL

 

[Jane The Virgin]

Nothing makes sense.

I mean it sure does if you look for a certain narrative. Just like with pretty much everything else in life.

For 10 years we argued among ourselves for FFP, some of us never actually got the basics of it how it works, while others really could elaborate in 5000 word essay the tiniest details of how it does work.

Now after the FFP, it's Covid. While I still don't understand how that can affect so much to a club like Inter, to the point of selling couple of major stars, just to "stay alive", other teams that haven't won shit this season (PSG, real m, barca) can afford our star players for prices above 60 millions euros.

And again, depending of what you want to believe, you can find enough supporting evidence for that narrative.

Which brings me to believe that after Moratti left, we became a joke of a club. A bigger one than when Moratti was here and was running the club like a 200 year old with original pasta recipe family owned restaurant.

 

[.h.]

We were, imho, worse under moratti. Obviously its a bit hard to compare becaause it was a different era without financial restrictions, etc, but this club would probably not existt if Moratti ran it now - there's a reason why he sold WHEN he did. Same with Berlu.

 

[Jane The Virgin]

And what about our new shirt sponsor. Wasn't the Pirelli deal an antique one. Weren't we all buzzing with "omg this new sponsor guys wow so much money" bull shit, when in reality that's like 30 or 40 (at most) millions per year? Like, that's 3 players yearly salaries.

Now Pirelli is gone. I'm sure whatever deal we make with the new sponsor will be affected by Covid and we won't be getting the money we would in 2019... So what happens next?

I don't think I am asking stupid questions to be honest... Just this whole situation is bullshit. It's finances. It's numbers it should be black and fucking white. No room for conspiracy theories... We are not talking about horoscope or spirituality.

 

[.h.]

I expect the new shirt sponsor to be circa 25-30mil a year. In some ways its less than we'd hoped for, but I believe putst us ahead of everyone except Juve (owner linked sponsor) and maybe Sassuolo (owner linked sponsor)

It'd have been nice for it to be 40mil maybe, but hey. It's still >double what Pirelli were paying us.

But let's wait for it to be signed and the details to come out



Whilst 15m a year extra isnt THAT Big of a deal, its all incremental. No CL to CL is maybe +60 or 70 anyway, matchday ontop of that, boost sponsorship revenue, prize money... it all adds up. It's about incremental gains. Thats how we go from 300m to 450 or 500m. Pushing past that will be impossible without broader Italian increased revenues (etc)

 

[.h.]

i missed it but t the end of last week our latest books came out:

https://www.inter.it/media/download....p.A for the 9 months ended 31 March 2021.pdf


I put some commentary at the same time in the Lukaku thread:
http://forzainterforums.com/showthread.php?14767-Romelu-Lukaku&p=2003292#post2003292


We still have 60m of outstanding revenues which are 'past due', which scares me - this will be sponsorship money we havent been paid for example. Some of it 2 years out of date already.

 

[Kenny]

Money paid to Conte for contract termination (which is absurd btw) in nowhere to be seen in the pdf.

 

[.h.]

results are for cllose of 31st march so wont be included

also the results are for mediaco (who get our broadcasting & sponsorship revenue), not teamco (who hold the player registration rights etc)

 

[Kenny]

yeah, would like to see the results for teamco too....
so, 1 big sale in the region of 60-80 mil should be enough at the moment?

 

[.h.]

I'm not a fan of speculating.
Teamco I think publish annually so we should see around Oct iirc

 

[.h.]

just as an interesting aside

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hernán_Crespo#cite_note-falseaccounting-13

I was reading aabout the accounting issues we had in the early 00s - wasnt really clear what happened. I'd guess this footnote makes it very clear, all the dodgy moratti-era accounting was legislated out, thus explaining the 200m ish loss we booked one season

 

[CafeCordoba]

So how this "fan ownership" thing Cottarelli talks about could actually work? He talks how they would first got in as minority shareholders. So they gather hundreds of millions of money to Suning to get a piece of Inter. They get some people on the board. What how are they going to chip in when Inter reports again some hundred millions losses after a season? And what about the stadium project. That requires enormous guarantees if such project is going to go through and some fan ownership section don't have funds for such thing.

 

[.h.]

So how this "fan ownership" thing Cottarelli talks about could actually work? He talks how they would first got in as minority shareholders. So they gather hundreds of millions of money to Suning to get a piece of Inter. They get some people on the board. What how are they going to chip in when Inter reports again some hundred millions losses after a season? And what about the stadium project. That requires enormous guarantees if such project is going to go through and some fan ownership section don't have funds for such thing.

this is exactly why its fucking stupid.

You can build a club in a 50+1 structure easily - because the assets are worthless at the point of founding.

Buy to retrosecptively fit it? You'd need Inter fans to raise ~500m euros without any chance of pay back on it (unless we instituted a dividend, but then you'd still need to have fan ownership spread evenly or else you just have minority ownerships).



I wouldnt put a single penny into Inter unlesss I could get that money back in due course (through dividends or sale of ownership of the club).


There might be some way to implement a fan co-ownership of clubs (e.g. voting rights but no equity rights) but the valuation of football clubs will plummet if you can buy out a football club but still get no fucking influence over its direciton.

 

[Il Drago]

Inter Milan looking to clinch debt refinancing deal by year end -source

MILAN, June 1 (Reuters) - Italy’s Inter Milan aims to roll over a 375 million-euro ($459 million) bond by year end, a source close to the matter said, after the Serie A champions secured fresh financing through a deal with investment firm Oaktree Capital Group.

Inter, controlled by Chinese retail giant Suning , have been hard hit by fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic as matches are played in nearly empty stadiums and companies have cut sponsorship budgets.

Restrictions for soccer club spending imposed by Chinese authorities have further complicated matters.

To shore up the club’s finances, Suning last month secured a 275 million-euro financing deal with Oaktree, pledging Inter shares by way of guarantee for the package.

The “Nerazzurri,” who are cutting their wage bill to keep the business sustainable in the pandemic, said they would also kick off the refinancing process for the 375-million euro bond sold by the club’s media unit that expires on Dec. 31, 2022. The club gave no specific details on the timing other than that it would start the process in the coming months.

“Inter aims to get a refinancing deal in place a year before the bond matures, possibly by the end of October,” said the source, who declined to be named since discussions are not public.

Inter’s media unit, which manages the club’s media rights, sold a high-yield 300 million-euro bond, partly guaranteed by the club’s media revenue, in 2017.

The unit sold a further 75 million euros of that bond, which carries a 4.875% coupon, last year. ($1 = 0.8171 euro)

https://www.reuters.com/article/inter-bond/inter-milan-looking-to-clinch-debt-refinancing-deal-by-year-end-source-idUSL5N2NI4G1?rpc=401&

 

[DARi0]

The future of Inter’s ownership situation is up in the air with Suning taking on a large loan from American fund Oaktree Capital, leading Italian media to speculate that control of the club may fall into Oaktree’s hands.

Italian news outlet Calciomercato.com highlight the situation, in which it is uncertain whether the Zhang family and Suning will be able to maintain control of the Nerazzurri under the conditions imposed by the Oaktree loan.

The California-based fund has immediately injected €50 million into Inter to ease the club’s financial problems, with a further €225 on the way should the fund’s conditions be met by Inter financially.

It is thought that the onerous 9% interest rate on the loan could lead to Oaktree gaining control of 31.05% of the club.

The situation has been compared to that which the club found itself in when Suning took over from Erick Thohir, leading many to believe that these parallels could lead to a similar outcome for Inter.

+

Inter owners Suning will have to show progress in their financial plan for the club as a condition of receiving the remainder of the €275 million loan from Oaktree Capital, Italian media are reporting.

While €50 million of the loan has already been paid out to the Nerazzurri, the remaining amount is yet to be paid out. A key condition of the loan is that Suning will only receive the next amount if certain financial objectives are met, namely the reduction of the wage bill at the club by 20% and the overall reining in of expenses.

Tuttosport suggests that these conditions show that Oaktree intends not only to be Suning’s creditors, but also to have a say in the direction of Inter from a financial perspective.

Oaktree appear to have as their agenda the stabilizing of Inter’s economic situation from the volatile state it has been left in due to Suning’s debt and the loss of revenue caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.These factors explain why the Nerazzurri have been undertaking a drastic financial project involving the sale of key squad members.

News regarding the shirt sponsor to replace Pirelli is expected by the end of June, which could also have a significant impact on Inter’s financial situation.

 

[YoramG]

Starting to worry a bit about the new sponsor. How many teams are yet to unveil their new kit because they can't land a sponsor?

 

[TheNetworkZ]

The shirt sponsor situation is really bad imo.

 

[Sawyer]

Starting to worry a bit about the new sponsor. How many teams are yet to unveil their new kit because they can't land a sponsor?

Lazio

 

[CafeCordoba]

That's what I suggested too that these cost cuts are connected to the Oaktree deal. It's logical and makes sense so this time I agree with Tuttosport reporter.

 

[William]

I’d wait till end of June then release the shirts (limited amount) and add sponsor to them when we find them