MILAN, March 9 — Serie A will on Monday ask its 20 clubs whether they want to kick-off a process to study proposals by private equity firms and banks interested in investing in the media business of Italy’s top flight football league, a document seen by Reuters showed.
Citi, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and Barclays are the lenders listed in the document, which mentions also private equity firms Apollo, Apax, Carlyle, Three Hills Capital Partners and Searchlight. Deutsche Bank, which has been indicated among banks interested in investing in Serie A, left the race as it is involved in a similar process involving Germany’s Bundesliga, a source briefed on the matter said.
However, the owners of Italian league leaders Napoli and current champions AC Milan have both expressed scepticism about plans to bring in external investment into the media business.