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This content was machine-translated from the French version.
Two years after the takeover by California-based fund Oaktree, Inter Milan's shareholding structure remains a puzzle for anyone trying to map out its precise contours. The fund holds 99.6% of the shares through a cascade of Luxembourg companies, but it is a recent move that best sheds light on the reality of power: Giuseppe Marotta, president since May 2024, has entered the capital with around 2%.
Oaktree at the helm since Suning's default
Steven Zhang, then president, failed to repay the €275 million loan taken out three years earlier from Oaktree to keep the club afloat during the Covid crisis.
Everything changed on May 21, 2024. Steven Zhang, then president, failed to repay the €275 million loan taken out three years earlier from Oaktree to keep the club afloat during the Covid crisis. The American fund, a specialist in distressed debt, seized the pledged shares—68.55% of the capital—and took control of the nerazzurro ship overnight.
Since then, Oaktree has bought out minority shareholders, including the Zhang family itself and Chinese giant Lenovo, to climb to 99.6%. A near-monopoly that leaves little room for doubt about who decides, but plenty about how.
The Luxembourg labyrinth
The official organizational chart looks like a fiscal treasure hunt. Oaktree Capital Management, based in Los Angeles, controls Inter through several vehicles registered in Luxembourg: OCM Luxembourg Inter Holding SARL, OCM Luxembourg InterCo SARL, and other entities with interchangeable names. This architecture, classic for American investment funds operating in Europe, optimizes the taxation of future capital gains while obscuring real flows.
The choice of Luxembourg is far from trivial. The Grand Duchy offers a flexible legal framework for holdings and favorable taxation on share disposals. Oaktree has never hidden its investment horizon: a holding period of three to five years, enough time to turn around the accounts and enhance the club's value before a resale.
Marotta, from president's suit to shareholder's portfolio
Giuseppe Marotta initially refused the presidency that Oaktree offered him in May 2024. The man who had built Conte's Juventus and launched the Inzaghi cycle at Inter did not want to take on a figurehead role. He eventually accepted, not without setting his conditions: total sporting autonomy and the green light to extend Simone Inzaghi, the coach he himself had installed on the bench.
Marotta's entry into the capital—around 2%, valuing his stake at about €25 million—changes the game. The 68-year-old executive is no longer just a high-end employee. He now has a direct financial interest in the club's valuation. A strong signal sent to the market and to the tifosi: the man who runs Inter on a daily basis believes enough in the club's future to put his own money into it.
A cleaned-up club, a showcase ready for sale
Under Oaktree's leadership, Inter has continued its austerity drive: reduced wage bill, balanced transfer market, optimized ticketing at San Siro. The accounts should return to balance this season, an achievement for an Italian club. The Giuseppe-Meazza stadium, whose renovation is being negotiated with the Milan municipality, constitutes the other value-enhancement lever.
The question on tifosi's minds is therefore not who owns Inter today—Oaktree, via Luxembourg—but how long the California fund will keep this jewel before reselling it with a comfortable capital gain. Gulf sovereign funds and American family offices have reportedly already shown exploratory interest. Giuseppe Marotta, for his part, will likely still be there when the new owners arrive.