CorSport: Cardinale ‘searching for new investors’ – what changes could come in 2026

RedBird Capital are seeking investment to help repay the vendor loan that they used to buy AC Milan from Elliott Management.

As Corriere dello Sport (via PressReader) recall, the first rumour surfaced from the United States one week ago thanks to Pitch Book, an American database platform specialising in private equity, venture capital, private credit and M&A (Mergers and Acquisitions).

They claimed that RedBird is seeking investors to quickly repay its debt of approximately €700m to Elliott, stemming from the vendor loan with which Gerry Cardinale purchased Milan in August 2022.

The search for funding

The idea is to gather investors who might be willing to inject fresh money into the Milan project. The presence of a name (Pitch Book cites Comvest Credit Partners, ready to provide the €700m loan with a medium-term repayment term, including interest, through a 100% Payment-in-Kind formula) and the timing of the news are raising eyebrows.

Exactly one year ago, just before the Verona-Milan match, the owners announced an official statement with a €170m investment, reducing the debt with Elliott to €489m excluding interest and granting a new loan repayment deadline from August 2025 to July 2028.

The additional time should be useful for finding new investors to repay that same debt or, in the most extreme case, lead to the sale of the club. The year of 2026 could be key, as Matteo Moretto recently pointed out.

Why? The new San Siro project is expected to undergo significant acceleration with its presentation and the start of construction, so it could be the ideal opportunity to introduce Milan to increasingly enticed and attractive investors.