Manchester United is planning to sell $100m (£64m) of shares in the United States. This is much less than the $1bn it originally hoped to raise through a flotation in Singapore. However, the $100m which is a so-called ‘place holder value’ could yet be revised upwards.
Manchester United is planning to sell $100m (£64m) of shares in the United States. This is much less than the $1bn it originally hoped to raise through a flotation in Singapore. However, the $100m which is a so-called ‘place holder value’ could yet be revised upwards.
The money from the listing would be used to repay debt. The filing stated that debt servicing costs for the nine months to the end of March were £35m. It also showed that the company burnt through £125m of cash in the same nine months after failing to qualify for the knockout stage of the Champions League. This left the club with just £25.6m of cash at the end of the first quarter.
The Glazers aim to keep control of the club through a dual class shares structure that will give the family’s class B shares 10 times more voting power than publicly traded class A shares. The public company will be incorporated in the Cayman Islands, well known as an offshore haven.
Transparency will be limited. The club has been categorised as an ’emerging growth company’ to take advantage of provisions under the recently passed US Jobs Act, which allows companies with annual revenues of less than $1bn to delay some financial reporting requirements for up to five years.
The company said it would make use of a rule to provide only two years of audited financial statements and an exemption from a requirement for an auditor to attest the management’s assessment of its internal financial reporting standards.