Serie A club Inter is in talks with up to four potential investors including Chinese retailer Suning Commerce Group Co Ltd, state newspaper China Daily has reported.
Inter welcomed a 12-person delegation from Suning headed by Chairman Zhang Jindong last week, club chief spokesman Robert Faulkner was quoted by the newspaper as saying.
Suning is also interested in Inter’s academy structure and training centre, the newspaper confirmed.
The club was in talks with three to four potential investors, and “discussions with Suning are probably at the most advanced stage, as they came to visit us in Milan,” Faulkner was quoted as saying in the report.
Representatives of the group, which also owns Chinese Super League outfit Jiangsu Suning, attended Inter’s win over Udinese last weekend.
“Both parties are exploring, in depth, the possibility of an ample partnership in a broad footballing sense and in terms of the development of football in China, and the possibility of reciprocal investment cannot be ruled out,” a spokesperson for the Suning group told Il Corriere della Sera.
“Once we have finalised the content of this cooperation, it will be officialised in China.”
Before any Chinese company can invest overseas, it must first obtain permission from the Chinese government and president Xi Jinping.
