Silvio Berlusconi has agreed to sell 48% of the Italian giants to Thai businessman Bee Taechaubol.

The two sides have been in discussions for a while now and stories emerged last night that Berlusconi had rejected a €1 billion bid from Taechaubol to buy the club outright as he wanted to remain the majority owner. It has now emerged that Berlusconi will remain in control of the club but he has sold a 48% share for a fee believed to be around €480 million.

A joint statement from the two parties read; “The draft agreement, which will be examined in detail, assures control of the club remains in the hands of President Silvio Berlusconi and Fininvest, which will hold a majority share of 52 per cent. The consortium represented by Mr Taechaubol will acquire a minority stake of 48 per cent.”

Berlusconi bought the Italian club in 1986 when Milan were on the verge of bankruptcy and he has saw the club win the Scudetto eight times as well as winning five European Cup / Champions Leagues. However, the last few years have been a struggle with AC Milan dropping to tenth this season and failing to qualify for Europe for the second season in a row.

Berlusconi spoke briefly to reporters as he left the meeting and said; "It allows me to hold onto the majority shareholding and the Presidency. Someone who knows the Asian market so well will develop the commercial brand of Milan in Asian markets."

Taechaubol is a 39 year old Thai businessman who founded a company called Thai Prime Company Limited and they specialise in private equity investment in public companies. This won't be his first venture into football as he was the man behind the Global Legends Series which was a series of football matches played by some legendary players including Fabio Cannavaro, Paul Scholes, Cafu, Ronaldo and Luis Figo.

Milan are currently in the process of appointing a new manager with Sinisa Mihajlovic seemingly on the verge of being appointed. It remains to be seen whether the new investment will reach the first team squad but if the club are to return to competing at the top level of the European game they will need to invest in new players and it is likely that a fair percentage of the new investment will be put into improving the product on the pitch.