Milan and Inter are ready to take a crucial step toward their new stadium, which is to finalize the purchase of San Siro and the surrounding areas from the City of Milan. According to Milano Finanza, the deed of sale could be signed on Thursday, October 30, or Friday, October 31. It is not excluded that it could be postponed to the first days of November for final adjustments. The deed must be completed by November 10, the day when the restriction on the second tier of the Meazza will come into effect, which would then prevent its demolition, as relayed via Milan News.
Milan and Inter ready:
Milano Finanza adds that Milan and Inter are now ready financially: "The San Siro operation will be structured in three steps linked to the phases of the project, as is customary for real estate operations of this scale. First, a bridge loan to be repaid in two or three years would cover the purchase price of the stadium (197 million euros) and ancillary expenses, including the design costs handled by Foster + Partners and Manica. Second, a large financing agreement will be arranged in the coming years, around 2027, when construction is expected to begin, and it should cover almost the entire cost of building the new San Siro, estimated at around 1.5 billion euros by the two clubs. Finally, a long-term refinancing agreement would be arranged around the inauguration of the new stadium and, according to reports, could rely largely on private debt."
Regarding the bridge loan, there is strong interest in participating, so much so that an oversized pool has formed. It includes four or five banks, two or three foreign (such as Goldman Sachs, BofA Merrill Lynch, JP Morgan, and Mitsubishi Financial Group) and two Italian banks (the leading candidate is Banco BPM, due to its long partnership with Milan). Regarding the large financing and the long-term refinancing, Milano Finanza writes: "The dialogue between Milan, Inter, and the banks will continue in the coming years. According to reports, the composition of the bank pool could also change with the second step of the operation, the large loan. Currently, the project envisions financing the 1.5 billion euro operation almost entirely through bank debt, excluding minority shareholders. Finally, the third step, the takeout loan, is effectively a long-term refinancing of the construction loan. According to rumors, private debt, possibly from the United States given the owners’ nationality, could enter the deal only at this stage."
