Italpetroli alone to decide on Roma sale

Roma's majority owner Italpetroli will alone decide whether to sell the soccer club to cover debts, holding company Italpetroli said yesterday, after a newspaper reported it had agreed a sale with creditor UniCredit.

"It will be (Italpetroli) exclusively to decide if the controlling stake in Roma is among the assets to use" for reducing debt owed to UniCredit, it said in a statement.

Italpetroli, which holds 67 per cent of the Serie A soccer club, is owned by the Sensi family with a 51 per cent stake.

UniCredit owns the remaining 49 per cent and has an option to increase that by 2 per cent under the terms of a loan to the Sensi family of 340 million euros ($528 million).

Il Messaggero reported yesterday that the family had 2-1/2 years to sell the soccer club under the terms of the agreement.

Earlier this month, billionaire financier George Soros said he was not interested in Roma after shares had gyrated on speculation his Inner Circle Sports Investment firm might buy it.

Italpetroli confirmed in April it had held exploratory talks with Soros's firm but has repeatedly denied receiving any expressions of interest for the Italian Cup winners.

Rome prosecutors have opened a probe into the share price's sharp swings. Yesterday, the shares were down 4.49 per cent to 0.99 euros, giving the company a total market capitalisation of about 138 million euros.