Monza, Fininvest sells to US fund Beckett Layne Ventures
Transfer agreement signed: immediate transfer of 80 per cent of the shares, with the remaining 20 per cent to be sold after 12 months
3' min read
3' min read
It's official. Monza Calcio changes hands. The agreement for the sale of Ac Monza by Fininvest to the American fund Beckett Layne Ventures - in the home straight in recent days as anticipated by Sole 24 Ore - has been signed. The transaction will take place in two stages: 80% of the shares will change hands by the summer with the closing, while the remaining 20% will be sold by June 2026.
It was 2018 when Silvio Berlusconi, after saying goodbye to the Milan of triumphs, decided to get back into the game. He did it his way: by buying Monza, the club from his Brianza region. Today, that story comes to an end. And it is not just the sale of a football club. It is also, evidently, the definitive demise of the Berlusconi sporting epic.
Two years after the death of the former Cavaliere, thus ends the family's football history. A story that had the red and red of Milan and then, in recent years, the red and white of that Monza that represented, after all, a return home. Expensive, for goodness sake. The club's latest balance sheet, as of 31 December 2024, reports a value of production that has risen in one year from 68.3 to 82.9 million euros, but with a loss of 48 million euros, after the 60 million red of 2023 and the -65.4 million recorded in 2022. Now the relegation has also forced a write-down in Fininvest's accounts.
The family holding company has thus signed the agreement to sell 100% of AC Monza's capital to Beckett Layne Ventures, a US-based fund led by financier Brandon Berger. A passing of the baton that smacks of a watershed. The operation, as said, will take place in two stages. In the meantime, Fininvest will keep one foot inside the club with a representation on the Board of Directors 'in line with its residual shareholding,' reads the statement of the same holding company. But it is clear that the future speaks another language. And that future has a distinctly Yankee accent.
Who are the new owners? Beckett Layne Ventures is a fund with strategic interests in sports, media and global entertainment. It is led by Brandon Berger. However, for the Monza operation, Mauro Baldissoni, a former Roma manager, is also in the director's box, a well-known name to those in the industry and a guarantee of a bridge between the logic of American business and the complexities of continental football. Baldissoni himself, together with Monza's current managing director Adriano Galliani, will be co-responsible for the management of the company in this interim period, until the deal's closing, which will also include former Argentine footballer Nicolas Burdisso, as sporting director, and Francesco Vallone as technical director.
