Champions League finalists Inter draw bid interest-sources

LONDON/MILAN : Finnish entrepreneur Thomas Zilliacus is weighing a bid for Inter Milan as the club attracts interest from international investors, people familiar with the matter said, with the team's run to the Champions League final giving it a timely boost.

Inter will face England's Manchester City on June 10 in European soccer's showpiece game. It is Inter's first Champions League final since Chinese retail conglomerate Suning Holdings took control of the club in 2016.

Off the pitch, Goldman Sachs and U.S. boutique bank Raine, which managed the sale of Premier League club Chelsea last year, have been in negotiations with various parties interested in investing in the Serie A team, two sources said.

Former Nokia executive Zilliacus is among potential suitors, according to two sources, who declined to be named as the discussions are confidential. Zilliacus emerged this year as a potential bidder for England's Manchester United but dropped out of the running.

Advisers will likely set a deadline for a final round of bids for Inter in the next four weeks, two people involved in the process added, with another person saying a deal could be completed later in the summer.

However, Suning denied that a deal was in the works.

"There is no bidding process," a media representative at Suning Holdings Group said. Inter Chairman Steven Zhang said last year that the owners were committed for the long term.

Inter, whose top players include Argentine forward Lautaro Martinez, are historically one of Italy's top clubs. They won the Champions League in 2010 and won the European Cup, its forerunner, twice in the 1960s.

Yet Inter, Italian Serie A champions in 2021, were hard hit by the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic and booked a 140 million