Chinese retailer Suning Holdings Group acquired a majority stake in Italian football club Inter Milan. It now owns 68.55 % of all shares, while Indonesian business man Erick Thohir holds onto 31 % of all shares.
1,600 stores
Three years ago, Thohir bought 70 % of Inter Milan’s shares, but he has now decided to collaborate with Chinese retailer Suning, receiving 270 million euro for the shares he sold to the Chinese company.
It is not Suning’s first outing into the footballing world, as it also controls Chinese football club Jiangsu, a team that previously paid hefty sums to attract well-known European-based footballers.
Suning is one of China’s largest private companies, with a 45 billion euro turnover and about 1,600 stores across 600 cities in China, Hong Kong and Japan. Alibaba acquired a 20 % stake in the company in August 2015, for which it paid 28.3 billion yuan (3.8 billion euro).
Inter Milan’s rival, AC Milan, is currently still Silvio Berlusconi’s property, but there have been take-over talks with a Chinese group as well.
