U.S. investment firm RedBird Capital Partners has agreed a 1.2 billion euro ($1.3 billion) deal to buy Italian football giants AC Milan, the club said on Wednesday, while current owners Elliott will retain a minority investment.

The transition to new ownership will take place over the summer, with an expected closing of the deal no later than September, the club statement added.

AC Milan have just won the Italian Serie A title for the first time in 11 years.

"We are honored to be a part of AC Milan's illustrious history and are excited to play a role in the club's next chapter as it returns to its rightful place at the very top of Italian, European and world football," RedBird founder and managing partner Gerry Cardinale said in a statement.

"RedBird's investment philosophy and track record in team ownership has shown that football clubs can be successful on the pitch and sustainable off it," Cardinale added.

Media responses to the transaction:

"New York-based RedBird manages about $6 billion and the firm is a shareholder in Fenway Sports Group Holdings LLC, the owner of English Premier League football club Liverpool FC and the Boston Red Sox U.S. baseball team. It also holds a controlling stake in French football team Toulouse," Bloomberg editor Daniele Lepido wrote on May 31.

"The transaction highlights the march of powerful private equity investors into sport and football in particular, coming just days after a U.S. consortium funded mainly by California-based Clearlake Capital agreed to pay 2.5 billion British pounds plus a promise to invest 1.75 billion British pounds to buy England's Chelsea Football Club," editors James Fontanella-Khan in New York, Arash Massoudi and Samuel Agini in London wrote in a Financial Times piece on May 31.

"It also marks another example of American investors piling into Italian football clubs, with Atalanta BC, ACF Fiorentina, Genoa CFC, AS Roma, Spezia Calcio, Parma Calcio and Venezia FC all having U.S. owners or investors," the piece continued.

(With input from Reuters)