Indonesia's Erick Thohir signs deal to take over Inter Milan
Indonesia's Erick Thohir signs deal to take over Inter Milan
Thohir signed a deal to take over a majority stake of 18-time Italian champion Inter Milan on Tuesday, becoming the second foreign owner in Serie A.

Milan: Indonesian businessman Erick Thohir signed a deal to take over a majority stake of 18-time Italian champion Inter Milan on Tuesday, becoming the second foreign owner in Serie A.

"Everything has been signed," Inter president Massimo Moratti said.

The deal for a 70 percent stake in the club is reportedly worth 350 million euros ($475 million).

"Yes, I'm satisfied," Moratti added on Inter's website. "It's been a lengthy process but it seems to me that the whole thing is balanced and was done well."

The first Serie A club to cede majority ownership to foreigners was Roma, which were taken over by a group of Boston executives in 2011.

The 43-year-old Thohir is part owner of the Philadelphia 76ers and DC United. It remains unclear if the 68-year-old Moratti, who has owned the club since 1995, will remain president.

"That I don't know," Moratti said outside the office of his family oil company, Saras. Every president leaves his mark," Moratti added. "The important thing is that he's always respectful of the rest of the world, beyond his own job, and I think these people also have that in mind. ... They're people that really mean well and are good character-wise, too."

Inter and city rival AC Milan have each won 18 Serie A titles, second on the all-time list behind Juventus' record 29. Inter have also won three European Cups.

Moratti took over the club after his father Angelo was owner during the team's early glory years in the 1960s, when Inter won the European Cup twice.

After some difficult years under the younger Moratti, Inter returned to the top after the 2006 match-fixing scandal and won five consecutive Serie A titles from 2006-2010. In 2010, Inter also won the Champions League and the Italian Cup for an unprecedented treble in Italy, with Jose Mourinho as manager.

However, Inter struggled again in the past two seasons - finishing sixth in 2012 and ninth last season with the same number of losses (16) as wins.

Inter are coming off their first loss of this season, a 3-0 defeat to first-place Roma, which left the team in fourth place under first-year manager Walter Mazzarri. The Nerazzurri visit Torino on Sunday.

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