Rumors have long circulated around Blue Skye, the lesser-known company that played a leading role in Elliott Management’s acquisition of AC Milan. Giant.
But who are Blue Skye?
The company was founded by Neapolitan financiers Salvatore Cerchione and Gianluca D’Avanzo. Like Elliott Management, Blue Skye is fiercely private, its portfolio including the well-known Harry’s Bar in Venice, as well as luxurious homes around the world.
The two founders appear to have had a long-standing relationship with former AC Milan CEO Adriano Galliani, all board members of SOPAF, a Milan-based personal equity corporation that held a 50% stake in Blue Skye until 2006 when they sold the shares to a company called DB Zwirn.
Adriano Galliani, admitted in November 2005 to the SOPAF Board of Directors as advisor with 4. 69% of the total shares, the businessman was appointed member of the company’s Internal Control and Corporate Governance Committee in July 2006 and became a full member of the council in May. 4 of 2007, where he remained until December 2009.
Between 15 August 2005 and 16 August 2005, Galliani acquired more percentages totaling EUR 9,960. In December 2009, the former Milanese leader sold 180,000 SOPAF percentages for a total of 20,898 euros, or 0. 04% of the percentage capital, and former -wife Malika El Hazzazi also sold percentages retained in the corporate for a total of around 157,000 euros. at the same time.
Blue Skye was founded as a joint venture between SOPAF and DB Zwirn, led through Cerchione and D’Avanzo. DB Zwirn, owned by Daniel Zwirn, was liquidated in 2008 due to currency irregularities. The entrepreneur then created another fund, Arena Investors, who allegedly participated in the loan to Mr. Li through redblack’s transfer and now owns a small percentage of the club.
The Italian television channel RAI 3 conducted an investigative program with journalist Luca Chianca, who tested the links between the founders of Blue Skye, Cerchione and D’Avanzo, and Galliani, Silvio Berlusconi’s right-hand man in Milan. He asked Galliani a direct consultation about his ties to Blue Skye, but in response, he won nothing yet silence.
Despite his participation in vital agreements of the past, his role in the acquisition of AC Milan, a football club that has extensive political and social influence, was actually Blue Skye’s ultimate vital project, and Elliott himself would have discovered it to the fullest to succeed in a rapid and mass acquisition without the assistance of an intermediary.
In fact, Felice Raimondo, legal analyst and editor, whose 2018 ebook Il diavolo’s nei dettagli (The Devil is in detail) explored the main points of the agreement with AC Milan, revealed that Blue Skye was “undoubtedly essential” in Elliott’s terms. assistance in temporarily designing an agreement that would eventually cause hedge funds to take over the club in 2018.
“The assistance of Blue Skye, a company specialized in debt restructuring, is undoubtedly a must for the inauguration of AC Milan,” the Italian lawyer exclusively revealed to Forbes. “Thanks to the intervention of Blue Skye, a company already operating in Luxembourg, Elliott was able to boost the bridge credit operations granted to Rossoneri Sport Investment Lux, another Luxembourg corporation at the time owned by Li that bought 99. 93% of Milan.
In fact, on March 20, 2017, Blue Skye acquired a Luxembourg company, luxembourg Investment Company 166, which replaced its call on April 4, 2017 to the Redblack Project, the vehicle that physically lent the decisive cash for the final to Rossoneri Sport Investment Lux. »
A closer look at Blue Skye revealed some of the legal disorders the company has faced in the past, a scenario that has unexpected similarities to the Milan agreement. In 2012, Blue Skye Special Opportunities Fund accused of being “involved in a complex fraud involving misappropriation of truly extensive assets from an investment portfolio to a new design in abuse of trust. “
A summary of this case, founded in the United Kingdom and promoted through the Fortress Vale Recovery Fund, was compiled in a public note from DLA Piper in 2013, who revealed that the plaintiff claimed that Blue Skye, acting as an English limited company in this case, “designed and implemented a trap scheme to reorganize the fund and its assets , the objective and effect of which was to diminish or eliminate the rights and interests of the fund’s asset partners, in order to take and gain advantages from the assets themselves and to enable them to extract assets’.
Blue Skye asked the court to remain the case, but this was rejected and the lawyer described the trial that followed in 2014 as one of this year’s “main cases. “The publication revealed the accusation that the plan was “designed to allow Cerchione and D’Avanzo to take it and take credit for it. Rejecting the accusations, the defendants argue that reorganization was mandatory to comply with Bank of Italy regulations and to increase liquidity.
This blog post confirms that Fortress and Blue Skye were still locked in a legal dispute until at least September 2014 and that at this point the trail is cold. Cut.
With this in mind, we are now focusing our attention on the milan case, and Felice Raimondo explains precisely how the corporate loan was transferred to Elliott through Blue Skye.
“Subsequently, on April 10, 2017, Blue Skye ceded this case, redBlack’s assignment, to two cars owned by Delaware-based Elliott (King George and Genie),” the lawyer continued. “Then, in just 20 days, Blue Skye set the level for Elliott to physically function in Luxembourg through RedBlack’s assignment, and then provided the loan required for the final through Chinese leader Rossoneri Sport Investment Lux.
“On April 13, 2017, Elliott put a clause on this company, which exploded at the time of execution when Mr. Li has gone bankrupt for breaking one of the established pacts. “
Why did a tough company like Elliott want businesses to facilitate the loan?The undeniable answer is speed.
“Luxembourg is undoubtedly a preferred destination for mergers and acquisitions because it has vital tax, bureaucratic and even judicial facilities,” legal expert Raimondo said. “Suffice it to say that in July 2018, Elliott published the commitment of rossoneri Sport Investment Lux days, taking from the shipment that lately owns 99. 93% of Milan at an excessive speed. This is not comparable to similar procedures in Italian law, which take much longer».
Blue Skye and Elliott had reached an agreement with AC Milan through the arrival of Mr. Li, Riccardo Agostinelli, as the last hotel after wasting too much time looking for more favorable solutions. As a spouse at the attorneys’ firm GAP, Agostinelli had in the past worked with Blue Skye on restructuring Harry’s Bar’s debt and back to Neapolitan financiers and Elliott on the Bauer hotel agreement in the same city.
In addition, in 2014, Agostinelli had worked on restructuring the debt of San Siro’s neighbors, Inter. This loan had used the Inter logo as collateral, but Agostinelli, who also worked as Sr. Li, failed to locate a loan for Milan. leaving his consumer in Elliott’s hands.
“Yes, Blue Skye collaborated with Elliott on the acquisition of the Bauer Hotel in Venice,” Raimondo confirmed. “In 2016, Blue Skye restructured the hotel’s debt, then signed the initial acquisition agreement with the U. S. fund in 2017 and in 2019 they completed the transaction together.
As with the Bauer Hotel, the owners of Blue Skye won a share of AC Milan’s cake. Could a parallel be made with the 2012 accusations that Blue Skye reached an agreement to “take and take credit for the assets themselves”?
“Salvatore Cerchione and Gianluca D’Avanzo are members of AC Milan’s board of directors and on October 10, 2018, D’Avanzo also took over as CFO,” raimondo confirmed.
This trust is probably based on the way none of the companies benefit from the media’s gaze, however, as a supporter of the rossoneri, Raimondo believes Elliott will have to perceive that visibility is paramount to football club owners.
“Elliott themselves avoid publicity,” the lawyer concluded. These corporations have their own school of business thinking, without making proclamations. This is a novelty for Italy where, on the contrary, we are accustomed to owners who had more direct contact with the public.
In this sense, I think that the existing ownership accentuates the courtship with the fans, because the Italian game and football in particular are very passionate. Caring more about the environment of the club is a selection that would pay off in terms of esteem and credibility. On the contrary, running the business while still perched in your ivory tower would only create mistrust.
In short, Blue Skye has a close and lasting relationship with Elliott and played a key role in the acquisition of AC Milan, which only allowed them to be an integral component of the initial acquisition but, while remaining firmly in the shadows, continue to play a leading role in the club’s early long-term management.
I am an expert writer and passionate about Serie A, and I travel to watch live matches on the peninsula as much as possible. I have a wonderful delight in
I am a competent and passionate Serie A writer, and I travel to watch live matches on the peninsula as much as possible. I have extensive writing experience for primary British newspapers, primary magazines and a variety of other internet sites around the world. I have been a big football fan since I was 11, drinking the game in every possible way. My dad took me to see my local Stockport County team when I was young, and from there I got hooked!His grandfather played for Manchester City in the 1930s and scored a goal in a prominent friendly against Fiorentina in 1934 under the watch of the Italian World Cup team. This is the occasion that introduced a holiday in Florence and began a love story with live Italian football.