About Oaktree: the investments in Italy and the team that will follow the Inter dossier

Inter officially becomes Oaktree Capital Management, an American asset management company founded in 1995 in Los Angeles, where it is still headquartered, specialising in alternative investment strategies. As of 31 March 2024, the last official update, the assets managed by Oaktree amount to approximately USD 192 billion.

Oaktree has historically been present in Italy for several years, a country where it has made several investments. However, the (forced) entry into Inter's capital comes at a time when the Californian fund is leaving the Italian borders in several investments in the financial and infrastructural sector: the one in Banca Progetto, the challenger bank for which a sale negotiation with the Centerbridge fund is underway, and the other stake in the Roman company Cebat, where a sale procedure is also underway in recent weeks.

After all, the new ownership of Inter Milan is a forced and in some ways unexpected event on the part of Oaktree itself, since until a few weeks ago the now former shareholder Steven Zhang was still in negotiation with Pimco to get the 380 million to repay. In football Oaktree has so far little experience. His only marginal investment was in Stade Malherbe de Caen, a club that has been playing in the French second division for four years.

The Inter dossier will be taken care of by a specialised division of Oaktree: the Opportunies Group, where senior vice president is the Italian Renato Meduri, who is among the most flexible areas of the US group. The strategy, as already happened for other participations, will be to give autonomy to the managers, who in the case of Inter have all been recently renewed contractually, starting with the two managing directors Giuseppe Marotta and Alessandro Antonello.