Will Berlusconi sell off AC Milan to Thai businessman Bee?

Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said on Saturday more time is needed to seal an accord over a sale of a stake in AC Milan with Thai businessman Bee Taechaubol but said he could retain control of the soccer club.

Media and financial market speculation has been going on for months that Berlusconi intends to sell the club which has been a central part of his media and political empire for the past three decades but which has seen its fortunes dip in recent years.

Italian media reports say Bee is offering 500 million euros ($560 million) for a 51 percent stake in Milan, joining a series of other foreign tycoons who have bought some of the most prestigious European soccer clubs in recent years.

"My main concern is to give Milan fans the guarantee that the new season will ensure a future that matches the heights of the glorious past," Berlusconi told reporters outside the Milan hotel where the two held their second meeting this week.

Seven times European champions AC Milan remains one of Italy's most glamorous clubs but it has lost some of its shine in recent years. It won the most recent of its 18 Serie A championships in 2011, racked up debts of 250 million euros and made a loss of 91 million euros last year.

Berlusconi said Bee, whom he met at his sumptuous villa near Milan on Wednesday, is "a serious person whom I respect". But he said no decision has been made on the size of any stake sale and he may retain control of the club.

"Everything is under discussion, because there's still the possibility that I will keep 51 percent," he said.

Neither Berlusconi nor Bee offered any indication of how long it could take to wrap up a deal.

"We are now going to work on some minor details and we'll take a little bit more time," said Bee, executive director of south-east Asian private equity group Thai Prime Company Limited.

The expected sale comes at the same time as an apparent withdrawal by the 78-year-old Berlusconi from parts of his Mediaset television empire, which has faced growing headwinds in recent years as broadband internet has challenged traditional broadcasters.

As well as Milan, speculation has grown that he may sell Mediaset's pay TV operation, built around broadcast rights to Champions League soccer matches.

Mediaset, Italy's biggest commercial broadcaster, was a key element in Berlusconi's 20-year-long domination of Italian politics, while his image as a winner was burnished by the on-field success of his soccer club.

Since being forced from office as prime minister at the height of the eurozone crisis in 2011 and being convicted for tax fraud in 2013, Berlusconi's political fortunes have faded.

He has increasingly withdrawn from frontline politics and struggled to keep his fractious centre-right party Forza Italia united as younger rivals have emerged to challenge his leadership.