The reluctant owner of Inter Milan
Oaktree Capital Management is the world's largest distressed-debt investor, founded in 1995 and now a Brookfield subsidiary with roughly $202bn under management. It took control of Inter Milan in May 2024 when Suning defaulted on a loan that had accreted to about €395m, enforcing its share pledge rather than refinancing — making a credit fund the owner of one of Europe's biggest clubs.
Under Oaktree, Inter has been run for cash discipline: the club posted its first-ever profitable year for 2024/25 and refinanced its bond at a lower coupon, cutting annual interest. Analysts read the refinancing as balance-sheet grooming ahead of a sale, though no formal process has been disclosed and Oaktree describes itself as a patient owner.
Scale, the takeover, and the exit set-up
How the firm actually deploys
Oaktree is behaving like a credit fund that ended up with the keys. It has run Inter for cash discipline — first profit, cheaper debt — precisely to maximise an eventual exit value rather than to build a footballing dynasty. The bond refinancing is balance-sheet grooming, and named potential buyers (Gulf sovereign funds) remain speculative with no process confirmed.
The Brookfield full buyout changes who ultimately decides. Inter now sits inside a roughly trillion-dollar asset platform, so the hold-or-sell call may increasingly be Brookfield's rather than Oaktree's founders'. What Oaktree carries Inter at internally, and what return enforcement at €395m implies against a €2bn-plus ask, are not disclosed.
Direction in 2026
The posture is patient: stabilise, then sell at a favourable mark. The open questions are whether there is a live, mandated sale process or only opportunistic readiness, whether Brookfield wants Inter as a long-term platform asset rather than a disposal, and what internal valuation justifies holding. For a Ledger reader, Inter is the cleanest current case of football as a distressed-credit asset that a fund neither sought nor intends to keep.
- Oaktree / Brookfield filings and releases; Institutional Investor
- ESPN (Suning default); SempreInter, BeBeez (profit, refinancing)
- OneFootball (sale-preparation framing)
- Note: no mandated Inter sale process confirmed; buyer identities speculative