The Sunday Times Business section provides authoritative coverage of football among other areas of the economy and today’s issue leads with the story ‘Glazers eye Man Utd float in Asia’. The idea of listing the club on the Hong Kong stock exchange is certainly an interesting one with many potential implications.
The Sunday Times Business section provides authoritative coverage of football among other areas of the economy and today’s issue leads with the story ‘Glazers eye Man Utd float in Asia’. The idea of listing the club on the Hong Kong stock exchange is certainly an interesting one with many potential implications.
However, a note of caution is necessary. Midway through the story one reads, ‘Sources close to the discussions insisted that the plans were at an early stage and may come to nothing.’ In other words, this could be a piece of kite flying to test reactions both from business and the world of football.
I wouldn’t interpret this as the article does as indicating that the Glazers may be thinking of an exit strategy, creating an opportunity for the Red Knights to revive their interest in buying the club. First, I am sceptical about whether they could raise £1.7bn. even though they have some wealthy backers and have been trying to drum up further interest in the Middle East in recent weeks. Even if they did succeed, it would still be businessmen in charge, albeit ones possibly more acceptable to the fans.
In any case what a stock exchange listing would do is give the club a firm valuation and also allow the Glazers to realise some of their paper gains. Nevertheless, it is interesting that the article suggest that the Glazers would prefer a stock exchange float to a sale to a private investor such as the Qatari royal family.
My guess would be the Glazers think that the capital value of the club could appreciate even more and would not be contemplating even a partial sale of their stake for some time yet.