Manchester United

[offshore-engineer]

Manchester United plans to float on US stock exchange

The record 19-time English champions filed a registration statement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday to hold an initial public offering of stock and become a listed company on the New York Stock Exchange.

While the stock price and the number of shares were not listed, the registration statement said the club hoped to raise a maximum of $100 million.

Manchester United would be one of the first sports teams to go public in the US in more than a decade. The last team to do so was the Cleveland Indians Baseball Co, which launched in 1998, according to data tracker Dealogic, and was later taken private.

The Glazer family, which bought the club in 2005, would retain control over the club through Class B shares, which would have 10 times the voting power of the shares that would be sold to the public.

Under the reorganisation, the team would become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Manchester United Ltd, a newly formed holding company based in the Cayman Islands.

The team was listed on the London Stock Exchange from 1991 until June 2005, when Glazer completed a leveraged buyout valued at $1.47 billion. Glazer also owns the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Manchester United has been looking to raise funds to help reduce debts from the 2005 takeover that were on $651.57 million as of March 31.

A $1 billion offering on the Singapore stock market was pursued last year, but the plans were halted due to volatile global markets.

The team, European champions in 1968, 1999 and 2009, has been valued at $2.24 billion by Forbes magazine, ranking it as football's most valuable club for the eighth year in a row in April.

The Red Devils, as Manchester United are nicknamed, were on track to their 20th league title this year, taking an eight-point lead in the final weeks of the season.

But crosstown rival Manchester City, which became football's biggest spender following its purchase by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan of the United Arab Emirates, won the title on goal difference on the final day of the season.

Manchester United said that it had a loss from continuing operations of $47.5 million  in the year ending June 30, 2009, then had profits of $13 million  and $13.3 million in the following two years. It said it had a profit of $38.2 million in the nine months ending March 31.

Some warnings were included in the filing, with the team saying "our indebtedness could adversely affect our financial health and competitive position" and "recently approved UEFA restrictions could negatively affect our business".

European football's governing body is phasing in spending restrictions over several seasons, known as Financial Fair Play.

Managers of the offering are Jefferies & Co Inc, Credit Suisse Securities (USA), JP Morgan Securities, BofA Merrill Lynch and Deutsche Bank Securities Inc.

Several other English Premier League teams have US owners, including Arsenal (controlled by Stan Kroenke), Liverpool (by the parent company of the Boston Red Sox), Aston Villa (Randy Lerner) and Sunderland (Ellis Short).

Manchester United traces its origins to 1878, when its predecessor Newton Heath LYR was formed by railyard workers. It changed its name in 1902 when a brewery owner invested in the team.

- Dow Jones Newswires contributed to this story

[offshore-engineer]

สำหรับแฟนแมนยูครับ เอกสาร IPO ที่ยื่นต่อตลาดหลักทรัพย์ที่สหรัฐอเมริกา ราคาหุ้นและจำนวนหุ้นที่จะเสนอขายยังไม่ได้กำหนด

http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/ ... 09zf-1.htm

[offshore-engineer]

http://www.economist.com/node/21558312

Football
Equity 1, debt 0
Manchester United’s unattractive initial public offering
Jul 7th 2012 | NEW YORK | from the print edition

WHEN Manchester City topped Manchester United on goal difference to win England’s Premiership title in May, it was a case of equity triumphing over debt. City, long the poorer and less successful soccer team, has soared since being bought in 2008 by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan of the United Arab Emirates, and has been buying players as if money were free (which in the sheikh’s case it nearly is). United, by contrast, has found its ability to buy the best players constrained by debts of nearly $700m, nervous bankers and pending European “fair play” rules designed to ensure teams do not prosper by taking excessive financial risks.

Even when he is on form, Wayne Rooney (pictured), now United’s only genuine superstar, cannot win trophies on his own. Hence the forthcoming initial public offering announced on July 3rd. This is not a return to the full public-company status the Red Devils enjoyed between 1991 and 2005, when the club was taken private by the Glazer family of Florida, which also owns the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, an American-football team. Nor is it the $1 billion offering that was widely expected to take place in Singapore, which seems to have been abandoned because of volatile financial markets. Instead, United will list on the New York Stock Exchange, and will aim to sell only enough shares to raise $100m.

United’s brand is still reckoned to be the most valuable in football, at around $2.2 billion, according to Forbes magazine. But that does not make the shares a wise investment. The filing documents list more than 50 risk factors, from the performance of the team to reliance on the laws of the Cayman Islands.

United will not have to release much financial information, since the Glazers are taking advantage of America’s Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012 to register it as a lightly regulated “emerging growth company”. (Is a 134-year-old club staffed by spoilt millionaires really the sort of “start-up” the law’s drafters had in mind?) New shareholders will have little say over how United is run, including whether it pays them any dividends. The shares the Glazers are offering are special ones with minimal voting rights. So the only return from this IPO is likely to be the victories the money raised brings on the pitch. This is an offering for fools and fans only.