China's Suning buys 70% stake in football giant Inter Milan

"The acquisition of Inter Milan is part of Suning's strategy in the development of the sports industry and driving our campaign in the health and lifestyle consumer market," Jindong Zhang, Suning's chairman, said in a statement. "This will not only improve Jiangsu Suning FC's technical set-up and operational capabilities, but will also help Suning to grow internationally, enabling us to become a household brand name in Europe and across the world."

The investment is expected to leverage growing Chinese interest in football and exploit Suning's resources to re-establish the longstanding team as one of the world's top-10 competitors in the sport. Since the team's founding in 1908, Inter Milan has won 18 domestic titles and three UEFA Champions League trophies. Suning's e-commerce group will provide access to 130 million of Inter Milan's followers in China and offer expertise in developing platforms to directly engage fans worldwide.

It follows only a week after Suning initiated the launch of an investment division targeting RMB50 billion ($7.6 billion) of assets under management aimed at growing the company's online presence. This in turn followed a string of strategic investments designed to extend the company's online reach, including the purchase of group buying site Manzuo and online video streaming platform PPTV. The PPTV investment was made in conjunction with Hony Capital, which paid RMB1.2 billion for a minority stake in Suning in 2011.

Suning has more than 1,600 stores covering 289 cities across China but has struggled to run traditional brick-and-mortar businesses in the face of increased online competition. Moves to address this challenge have included diversification into the health and lifestyle markets as well as a partnership last year with Alibaba which saw the e-commerce giant invest RMB14 billion in the company for a 20% interest.

Chinese investments in sport-related assets have reflected broader government ambitions to create a domestic sports industry worth RMB5 trillion by 2025. CMC Capital Partners has also been active in this space, paying $1.3 billion for broadcast rights in China's domestic football league and then teaming with CITIC Capital among others to buy a 13% stake in City Football Group, owner of Manchester City Football Club and other global assets.

Everbright Securities and entertainment specialist Beijing Baofeng Technology, meanwhile, have acquired a 65% stake in Italy-based sports media rights firm MP & Silva. The deal is believed to value the company at about $1 billion.

• Tweet  
• Facebook  
• LinkedIn  
• Google plus  
• Save this article  
• Send to  

• Topics
• Greater China
• Europe
• Consumer
• Buyouts
• China
• Media