Football: JPMorgan seeks to finance the Italian Serie A to the tune of 1 MdE


MILAN (Reuters) – JPMorgan Chase has written to the Italian football league, Serie A, expressing preliminary interest in supporting the development of its media business, according to three people familiar with the matter.

The US bank’s interest rivals that of several investment funds which have also approached Serie A as the league prepares to hold a tender to sell its domestic and international broadcast licenses for seasons after 2024 .

According to the sources, the 20 clubs that make up Serie A were made aware of the US bank’s interest during a closed-door meeting of their managers on Thursday.

JPMorgan should be able to provide between 700 million and 1 billion euros in bank financing, one of the people said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the discussions are not public.

This person clarified that the fees would be JPMorgan’s funding security. JPMorgan and Serie A declined to comment.

After previous attempts by investment funds to strike a deal with Serie A over its media business failed, New York-based Searchlight Capital and a group of funds led by Carlyle Group have expressed preliminary interest in the takeover. Serie A broadcasting rights at the end of 2022.

The sources said Serie A clubs learned on Thursday that Apollo Global Management had also come forward, without giving further details. Apollo declined to comment.

The clubs are due to meet on February 24 to discuss how to respond to approaches from JPMorgan and the funds, and they may decide to engage a financial adviser, the sources said.

Ahead of that meeting, clubs are due to discuss in mid-February the media rights sales process, which is expected to begin later this year.

Any decision must be approved by a qualified majority of club representatives, which has proven to be an obstacle in the past to reaching a deal with potential investors.

(Report Elvira Pollina, written by Valentina Za; French version Augustin Turpin, edited by Kate Entringer)



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