A deal is being targeted by June by the Chinese investor group pursuing a takeover of the AC Milan soccer club, said reported Bloomberg. AC Milan is controlled by former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

The consortium is seeking a deal in time for the summer transfer season and they have agreed on most key terms. The consortium’s investors have a background in renewable energy and media. Sources said that the initial investment would be used to make the team more competitive rather than pay down debt and Berlusconi’s Fininvest SpA and the Chinese group have already discussed plans to strengthen the squad.

Sources said that the Chinese consortium is targeting at least a 50 percent stake, which could rise to about 70 percent. Due diligence is being conducted on AC Milan’s debt as well as player contracts by the investors.

While Berlusconi’s daughter, Barbara, joined the board in 2011, Berlusconi serves as honorary club president. since at least last year talks have been ongoing between Thai investor Bee Taechaubol and the billionaire three-time premier. Sources said that after an arm of Chinese conglomerate Citic Group Corp. pulled the funding it was going to provide for Bee’s bid, Bee has been forced to look at new ways of raising financing.

Though he’s unlikely to invest as much as he had previously expected, according to one of the sources, Bee, who is chairman of Bangkok-listed Electronics Industry Pcl, remains interested in buying into the club. Before negotiations started with Bee, the Chinese group had discussions with Fininvest about acquiring a stake.

Bee was offering 480 million euros ($540 million) for a 48 percent stake reported Italy’s La Gazzetta dello Sport in January. According to Forbes, Milan is worth $775 million.

Sources were laso qupted by Bloomberg as saying that the plan is to retain Berlusconi a senior title at the seven-time European champion. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, with a net worth of $7.2 billion, Berlusconi is Italy’s fifth-richest person.

President Xi Jinping published a national plan to grow soccer last year as a part of his push to turn China into a soccer force. Some of the nation’s richest businessmen have invested in clubs and training programs at home and overseas and Chinese teams have been the biggest spenders on talent in 2016.

Last year a 20 percent stake in Atletico Madrid and recently a partnership agreement with FIFA was signed by Dalian Wanda Group Co., owned by Chinese billionaire Wang Jianlin. The government said earlier this month that China wants its national team to be among the top ranks in Asia by 2030 and the country aims to have more than 70,000 soccer pitches by 2020.

On the other hand Milan could once count on a galaxy of superstars to help it win soccer’s biggest prizes and the team at present is just a shadow of the past. The full name of AC Milan is Associazione Calcio Milan. Milan has won eight league titles, five European Cups, marking the most-successful period in the club’s history since Berlusconi took control of the team in 1986.

( adapted from bloomberg.com)