AC Milan President Silvio Berlusconi "has confirmed a deal with Thai investor Bee Taechaubol for a 48 percent stake in the Serie A club has been reached, and the contracts will be signed just days after his 79th birthday at the end of the month," according to Ben Gladwell of ESPN.
Former Italian PM Berlusconi "has been in talks with potential investors for nearly a year now and Taechaubol signed a memorandum of understanding on one of his many visits to Milan in January."
It has taken since then -- and several more visits -- for the details of the agreement "to be ironed out," but Berlusconi "has set the date for the sale of a substantial but not majority stake in his club."
Berlusconi "will remain the club's president with Taechaubol becoming vice-president once the deal goes through." Berlusconi: "It's a very intelligent move. Commercializing the Milan brand, not only in China, where we have 242 million fans, but in all countries throughout Asia, is a very serious commercial plan which will see Milan gain over €100 million ($113M) a year in added revenue." Milan is "unlikely to be relocated to a new stadium, however." Plans to construct a new stadium on the former trade fair grounds in the city "are to be shelved with neither Berlusconi nor Taechaubol convinced by a move away from the San Siro" (ESPN, 9/15).
