The Chinese investor group seeking funds to buy Serie A side AC Milan, the club owned by former Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi, "provided a false bank report during its initial deal negotiations," according to BLOOMBERG. Berlusconi's Fininvest "agreed last month to sell the team to a group of little-known Chinese investors" for €740M ($1.1B), including debt. To prove its "financial strength" during the deal talks, the Chinese group provided documents "on what appears to be Bank of Jiangsu Co. stationery, purporting to show transaction details of a consortium member’s corporate account, people with knowledge of the matter said, asking not to be identified as the information is private." After reviewing the matter, Bank of Jiangsu found it had not "issued any such document detailing the account’s transactions." The Chinese consortium, led by businessman Li Yonghong and known as Sino-Europe Sports Investment Management Changxing Co., "does not confirm it has ever sent such a document," it said in an e-mailed statement, declining to be more specific. It added, "As we have already factually demonstrated, we stay committed on the closing of the deal." One of the purported bank reports said that it was printed at 4:14pm on April 25 and "lists recent account activity" ending with a balance of 852,468,304.56 yuan ($128M) on that day. It is "stamped with a red oval seal bearing the Bank of Jiangsu name." According to sources, the documents "were sent to Fininvest as part of a collection of paperwork during the initial deal negotiations with the Chinese group." Fininvest "checked the soundness of the buyers through contacts with Chinese financial institutions, and it continues to work to finalize the deal by the end of the deal." Earlier this month, Fininvest said that the Chinese consortium has "already paid a non-refundable deposit" of €100M ($111.5M) in two tranches. The Chinese consortium did not have "all the financing in place when it agreed to purchase the Italian club." The group is "seeking money from new partners to help meet its stated goal of completing the deal by year-end." The purchase agreement "also includes a requirement to provide" another €350M ($390M) of funding to AC Milan over a three-year period (BLOOMBERG, 9/20).
