Elliott’s plan for the future of Milan finally revealed

In July 2018 Elliott Management Corporation became the official proprietor of AC Milan club but the intention of the American owners is not to stay for long.

A few days ago AC Milan News reported that Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky had offered 600 million euros to acquire the Rossoneri from Elliot Fund. A very tempting offered that would have allowed Elliot to make a profit despite holding the club only for a short time. But still the Americans kindly refused.

It’s unclear if the energy tycoon will make an improved offer but taking into consideration Elliot’s immediate rejection and unwillingness to negotiate it would be useless to insist. At least at these figures. But why would a famous hedge fund remain in the football business?

In 2017 Chinese businessman Yonghong Li acquired AC Milan from Silvio Berlusconi for more than 700 million euros. To make this operation possible Mr. Li had loaned around 400 million from the American fund. In July 2018, Li defaulted on his debt to Elliott Management and the Americans became the new owners of AC Milan.

At the time, new Rossoneri president Paolo Scaroni declared that Elliot aims to hold Milan for 3-5 years and later resale to a higher price. It seems that the price Elliot has targeted for AC Milan is much higher that what Kretinsky has offered.

In fact, according to La Repubblica, the ambition of the Singer family is to enhance the Milan brand, achieve Champions League qualification and latter sell the club for at least one billion euros. For now, only Juventus is valued in these figures, no other Italian club is even close.