A Chinese proverb goes like this: what the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the rest of the world calls a butterfly. Who knows what it will beInter, at the end of a process that will begin today, barring last-minute surprises. It won’t be completely painless, probably quick yes. It is the day of truth, in Viale della Liberazione, the one in which all or almost all the issues will come to a head. Not all questions will be answered: why Suning, who in 2021 obtained a loan evidently aimed at selling the club, waited until the last second? Because until a few days ago the possibility of a passage to Oaktree was it described as the least realistic? Is there a direction behind the latest developments, or is everything really as sloppy as it seems?
Probably these knots in the comb of a public story will never reach us, let’s go back to the recent news. Suning has two ways to keep Inter: the first, to return to Oaktree the approximately 375 million euros, including interest, deriving from the loan contracted in 2021. Objectively difficult: the Pimco hypothesis having vanished, the path to another loan is to be considered impracticable. The alternative is that Suning “discovers” sudden liquidity to service the debt. Without surprises, the US fund could enforce the pledge and claim 99.6 percent of Inter’s shares, making Grand Tower its own, which is the vehicle used by the Zhang family to control the club.
The move could be completed in a week, as happened with Milan. The different stature of Li Yonghong and Jindong Zhang leaves any possibility open, but from what we know now the ending should not be very different. Once the process is closed, we need to understand what will happen: the sports area is almost untouchable, the corporate one a little less so but the idea of moving forward with the same structure would make sense. A certain and largely justified tranquility continues to be seen between Viale della Liberazione and Castello Sforzesco, the scene of a party closed to the fearsome journalists last night. Whether actual or ostentatious, who knows.
