A PHALANX of ageing Premier League soccer stars such as Didier Drogba and Nicolas Anelka have come to China in the past few months, seeking a last big pay-off in the cash-rich, talent-poor Super League.
A sluggish stock market and a cooling property market mean that Chinese investment money is looking outwards, and the latest sign of China’s growing overseas influence was the news last week that a group of Chinese investors will become the second largest shareholder in Italian soccer club Inter Milan.
Inter’s parent company, Internazionale Holding, said the group would acquire a stake but that the Moratti family would retain control, and it will also build a new stadium in partnership with a unit of China Railway Construction (CRC), one of the world’s largest construction companies, to be completed in 2017.
The Serie A club’s owner, Massimo Moratti, has gushed about how he is “extremely pleased about this deal” and it fits with its efforts to increase its presence in Asia.
European soccer is wildly popular in Asia, and European football clubs are proving quite a draw for Asian tycoons.
Disgraced Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra used to own Manchester City, while English Championship side Birmingham City is owned by Hong Kong billionaire Carson Yeung. Thailand-based Asia Football Investments owns Leicester City, and Queen’s Park Rangers is owned by Tony Fernandes, head of the Malaysian budget airline Air Asia. To date, Chinese investors have failed to make headway in the sport business, with bids for the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team, the Cleveland Cavaliers basketball team and Liverpool FC all foundering.
Chinese investors, encouraged by the government, have been actively pursuing overseas assets, and CRC has actively pursued overseas investment this year, signing two projects in Africa with a total contract value of 9.1 billion yuan (€1.16 billion).
But as the economy slows in China, there are calls for greater prudence by Chinese firms, especially by state-owned firms like CRC. Other high-profile purchases by Chinese companies this year have included the takeover of cereal maker Weetabix by China Bright Food and an agreement by Dalian Wanda Group to buy the US movie chain AMC Theatres.
The China Daily newspaper said the Inter deal was “great news for Chinese soccer fans”, but added that the fact the unexpected investor in Inter was CRC, made the deal “a case for concern”.
“With more than $3 trillion (€2.42 trillion) of foreign exchange reserves, the world’s largest, the Chinese government has good reason to encourage domestic enterprises to invest abroad. But that does not mean they can go on an overseas shopping spree,” it said.
