AC Milan Could Be in Trouble with Potential Breakdown of Bee Taechaubol Deal

One of the most talked-about stories in Italian football this year was the prospect of AC Milan owner Silvio Berlusconi finding a new investor willing to take on a minority share of his club.

The former prime minister of Italy and media mogul was connected to several different prospective buyers, but one name kept coming up more than any other: Bee Taechaubol.

Who is the man that the world calls Mr. Bee? Goal.com's Kris Voakes introduced us to him in an extensive profile in February. Born in Thailand, his family moved to Australia when he was only a year old, giving him a good footing in both Eastern and Western business cultures.

His family's company, Country Group Thailand, has become a leader in the country's business field. Taechaubol has had his hands in all fields, including advertising, cable TV, movie distribution, construction and stock brokerage. He has been successful in all fields. His stock brokerage nearly took over the Thai market share, and his construction company went from almost bankrupt to one of the biggest winners of Thailand's recent building boom.

In August, Berlusconi's holding company, Fininvest, announced that a deal had been reached with Taechaubol to sell a 48 percent stake in the club. The Thai businessman would pay €485 million to take his position as minority owner.

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But there's been a problem. The deal was originally supposed to be set for closing September 30. It is almost New Year's Day, and the deal has been in limbo. Now there's reason to wonder if it will ever be completed—and what the effect on the club might be.

On Monday, La Repubblica reported (h/t Football Italia) that the deal risked falling apart entirely. The main culprit in the breakdown? Taechaubol's only been able to raise a fraction of the money he requires. If the report is to be believed, he's only been able to come up with €140 million—just over 30 percent. Now the deal, which was expected to be completed after Christmas, is looking at another postponement—or getting scrapped entirely.

That Taechaubol is having difficulty is, when it comes down to it, not a huge surprise. In March, Forbes' Mike Ozanian wrote on the magazine's website that the yearly turnover for Taechaubol's business interests is just over $100 million a year. If those numbers are correct, it means Mr. Bee is certainly not independently wealthy enough to make this purchase on his own—he will need help.

That need was evident in May, when reports from Tuttomercatoweb came to light (h/t Football Italia) saying that one of Taechaubol's potential backers—a Dubai-based bank—was getting impatient at the glacial pace of negotiations between the Thai magnate and Berlusconi.

Taechaubol has never looked like Berlusconi's first choice. In May, he told Telenord (h/t Football Italia) that he wasn't going to sell anything of the club to "someone who is looking for immediate popularity." It was an obvious swipe and a sign that he considered Mr. Bee more of a dilettante than a serious buyer.

That he ended up making the agreement with him is likely a sign that Mr. Bee was the only person willing to meet Berlusconi's huge asking price.

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If this deal falls through, it could mean trouble for Milan. According to a September piece by Ozanian at Forbes, Milan absorbed a net loss of $102 million in 2014. At the current rate of roughly $1.10 to the Euro, that's a bit less than €93 million. In the past decade, the club has lost a net of $404 million—slightly more than €368 million.

At present, it looks like there won't be Champions League money coming in to close that gap. The Europa League is a poor substitute for the kind of money its bigger cousin shells out, but even then it looks like Milan's best bet at that right now is through the Coppa Italia, where their draw is much kinder than the likes of Juventus, Milan and Inter.

The problem is that there aren't any other revenue streams coming in that can make up for that loss. The inexplicable cancellation of the team's plans for a new stadium means that a major new source of cash—one that has served Juventus extraordinarily well over the last four-and-a-half years—isn't going to be on the horizon anytime soon.

It's no secret that Marina Berlusconi—Silvio's daughter, who runs Fininvest—cut her father's soccer team off from the rest of Fininvest's holdings in 2010. That's why his outlay in the transfer market this summer—€86.4 million, including €75 million on just three players—was such a surprise.

The problem with those moves then—and it looks to be more so now—is that they looked like the team was prospecting on the idea that new cash, ultimately in the form of Mr. Bee, would be coming in to help in the extremely short term.

Now it's entirely possible that won't happen. If it doesn't, Milan's rebuilding efforts are going to take a serious hit. This team is still rife with holes, and if they wish to fix them quickly to regain their usual place in the Champions League, the market is the way to go. But will they have the money to do it? If Mr. Bee can't complete his end of the bargain, Milan may not be able to spend on the level they did this summer again.

Let's be clear here: Milan isn't going to go the way of Parma—at least not unless someone knows something incredible that we don't know. But if this deal fails to go through, it could knock the Rossoneri out of Serie A's elite category for quite a long time.