Italian Bank UniCredit Says It May Consider Sale Of Serie A Side AS Roma Stake

Italian bank UniCredit said on Thursday that "it would consider a sale of its indirect stake in Serie A football team AS Roma, though no decision had yet been taken," according to Za, Flak & Pi of REUTERS. A Chinese investor, possibly business mogul Wang Jianlin, "was set to buy into the holding company that controls AS Roma through a reserved capital increase that would dilute current shareholders, especially UniCredit." The bank said in a statement, "At present no decision on the stake has been taken. (UniCredit) confirms that the asset is not strategic and would be available to consider possible opportunities to extract value from it." UniCredit has about 30% of NEEP Roma Holding, "the football team's holding company." The rest "is in the hands of U.S. investors" (REUTERS, 11/21).