Suning's debt default transfers Inter Milan ownership to Oaktree Capital.
Soon after buying Inter Milan in 2016, Chinese retail billionaire Zhang Jindong installed his 24-year-old son to help run one of the most famous football teams in Italy.
Domestic troubles Steven’s father started with a small air conditioning store in Nanjing, Jiangsu, and turned it into a retail conglomerate amid China’s economic boom. Suning.com became one of China’s biggest retailers of appliances, electronics and other consumer goods, diversifying into an array of businesses, from football clubs to property.
By 2021, Suning.com was in financial jeopardy, after investing into China Evergrande Group, the world’s most indebted property developer. A group of investors, led by the Nanjing state asset management committee and the Jiangsu provincial government, took a stake in the struggling firm, while Zhang lost control of his own firm.
Suning.com, the public-listed company, didn’t reply to an inquiry asking about personal business of the Zhang father-son duo. Steven still sits on the board of directors of the company. Messages to Steven’s personal Instagram and Weibo accounts went unresponded. Oaktree declined to comment. Elliott Management Corp, the investment firm run by billionaire Paul Singer, took control of AC Milan in 2018, after the club’s Chinese owner defaulted on its €303 million debt obligations. Four years later, Elliott sold the club to US fund RedBird Capital Partners for $1.3 billion.
Despite the success on the pitch, Inter continued to lose money, while investment banks including Raine Group and Goldman Sachs struggled to find a viable buyer. Market value Despite the disastrous financial ownership of Suning, Inter Milan has ballooned in valuation, driven in part by its on-pitch performance and a global boom in sporting assets.
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