A minority shareholder of Italy’s football team, AC Milan, is trying to stop the sale of the club for $1.3 billion (1.2 billion Euros) to Redbird Capital partners based out of New York.
The Reasons
Blue Skye Financial Partners said that Elliot investment Management, a hedge fund, was negotiating behind the scenes for selling the club, which was in breach of the rights of minority investors. According to Bloomberg News, Blue Skye, in a New York filing, is seeking the sale documents from a court in the US before taking legal action in Luxembourg to block the sale or get damages.
Elliot Investment said it was planning to close the sale by September this year, completing four years of AC Milan ownership. The club saw success on the ground when for the first time in a decade it won the domestic Serie A football championship in 2022.
But the investor Blue Skye said in its filing that it wanted to show how Elliot Investment was operating with deceit or malice by releasing confidential information without proper approval and failing to conduct an appropriate bidding process for the sale of the club.
Elliot, who has invested about 800 million Euros in AC Milan after taking its ownership in 2018, now wants to retain a minority interest in the football club and a seat on its board of Directors.
Blue Skye declined to comment on the matter, while Elliot did not respond immediately to the request for comment. A spokesperson for Redbird Capital declined to comment on the developments.
RedBird Capital Partners, founded by Gerald Cardinale, manages $6 billion approximately worth of assets. They are a shareholder in Fenway Sports Group Holdings LLC, which owns the Boston Red Sox baseball team and football club in the English premier league, Liverpool FC. Redbird also has a stake in the Toulouse, a French Football team.
According to the filing, Blue Skye holds about 4.3% in Elliot investment Management, based out of Luxembourg, which owns AC Milan. Blue Skye said that the son of the founder of Elliot Investment, Gordon Singer, who runs its London operations that, Elliot was focused on maximizing the market value of AC Milan, and Blue Skye would be privy to any sale details. Instead, they were cut entirely from the transaction.
