A struggling Italian football club has won a reprieve on its state-backed loans in an unusual deal that’s designed to avoid taxpayer losses.
Unione Calcio Sampdoria SpA will have at least an extra decade to repay about €50 million ($55 million) in loans granted under a government aid program during the pandemic. The club, which was relegated to Italy’s second division in June, is in the process of trying to shore up its finances to sell itself.
It marks one of the first restructurings by a large company that tapped Italy’s generous loan program that was set up during Covid lockdowns and may be seen as a template for other firms that run into trouble. Earlier this month, SACE backed a pre-insolvency proposal for builder Cimolai SpA that included an impairment on guaranteed loans.
Sampdoria reached a deal with SACE SpA, a credit insurance agency that’s owned by Italy’s economy and finance ministry, and banks that granted the loans as part of a broader debt restructuring, according to people familiar with the matter. The new deadline has been set at 2043, said the people, asking not to be identified because the talks are private.
Sampdoria confirmed it had reached an agreement with SACE and its creditors in a press release on Wednesday.
While creditors don’t usually allow so much extra time, in the case of SACE, it means that they don’t have to record any formal losses from the sports club.
The state-backed loans are part of a broader €175 million debt overhaul at Sampdoria. Creditors will take a haircut on the other borrowings, which include money the club owes to banks, suppliers and players’ agents. SACE had guaranteed loans from banks including Macquarie Group Ltd and Banca Sistema SpA.
A representative for Macquarie declined to comment when contacted by Bloomberg News, while spokespeople for SACE and Banca Sistema didn’t respond.
The approval of the loan extension is seen as key to the sale of the Genoa-based club. In late May, investors including Andrea Radrizzani, the former controlling shareholder of the English club Leeds United, and Gestio Capital made a €40 million offer for Sampdoria conditional on a debt restructuring.
Sampdoria was formed in 1946 by a merger of two clubs and has roots in Italian football that stretch back to the 1890s. While it thrived in the 1990s, winning top-flight Serie A competition and European Cup Winners’ Cup, its finances have suffered in recent years.
The debt restructuring still has to be formally signed off by a Genoa court. The club was granted protection from its creditors until early October, according to a legal filing seen by Bloomberg.
As part of the SACE agreement, the club will promote initiatives that support local youth and disadvantaged groups, Sampdoria said in the press release.
Italy had €114.3 billion of outstanding state-guaranteed loans as of December 2022, the most of any European Union member state, according to data from the European Banking Authority.
(Adds details of Sampdoria press release throughout.)
