AC Milan deal closing postponed to March 3

MILAN (Reuters) - The closing of the deal for the acquisition of Italian soccer club AC Milan will be postponed to March 3, the holding company of former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi and the Chinese consortium seeking to buy the team said in a joint statement. The statement on Wednesday confirms what sources told Reuters earlier this month. Under a new agreement between the two parties, the Chinese investors will pay a further 100 million-euro ($107 million) downpayment to Berlusconi by Dec. 12, they added, on top of the 100 million euros already paid in two separate tranches. The investors, backed by Haixia Capital and entrepreneur Yonghong Li, signed an accord in August to gain full control of the Serie A team, through investment vehicle Sino-Europe Sports Investment Management Changxing (SES). The deal was originally supposed to close on Dec. 13 but SES was struggling to get approval from the Chinese government for the deal. In the note SES said that management of the team "will continue to be based on shared decision making". (Reporting by Giulia Segreti; editing by Agnieszka Flak)