RedBird Weighs Listing New Holding Company for AC Milan

RedBird Capital has formed Milan Sports & Entertainment to hold AC Milan and other investments in Milan, while founder Gerry Cardinale is preparing for a possible future stock-market listing of the new company. According to Sina Finance, its holdings include an interest in a planned 71,500-seat stadium that AC Milan will build with city rival FC Internazionale. Cardinale said a listing is not required but was considered when designing the company’s structure. He also said RedBird intends to hold the assets long term, and that their current value is in the low single-digit billions of dollars. RedBird has appointed U.S. sports executive Brett Yormark as CEO of Milan Sports & Entertainment. Yormark is due to step down as commissioner of the Big 12 Conference at the end of January 2027. The company is also intended to serve as an investment vehicle for RedBird’s plan to acquire a Milan basketball team and have it join NBA Europe, a league the NBA plans to create. If the acquisition succeeds, Cardinale plans to build a 20,000-seat basketball arena in eastern Milan. RedBird may also build a venue and facilities for top-level tennis, modeled on New York’s Flushing Meadows, which hosts the U.S. Open. Cardinale also plans to establish a hotel services and merchandise business modeled on Legends Hospitality, which he co-founded while working at Goldman Sachs. He said Europe is about 20 years behind the United States in this area and that the opportunity will accelerate as streaming grows and media rights become global. Founded in 2014, RedBird manages more than $21 billion in assets. It supported Paramount Skydance’s acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery but failed to acquire the UK’s Daily Telegraph. In September, RedBird agreed to acquire a majority stake in news and commentary platform Puck at a $250 million valuation.