NEW YORK—Manchester United, the popular UK-based association football (soccer) club, has filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to list common shares on the New York Stock Exchange in an initial public offering worth $100 million.
The soccer club did not specify the number of shares or the price per share of the offering, but the proceeds would be used to pay down its current debt levels—which, at $665 million, dwarfs annual revenues of $520 million, according to its F-1 filing.
In the filing, the club said revenues during the trailing nine months are 245.8 million pounds (US$383 million), while expenses during the same period amounted to 203 million pounds (US$317 million).
U.S. investors may not be familiar with publicly listed sports clubs, as the only major listed sports club in the United States is the Green Bay Packers. While the team is the highest grossing in the U.K., the club is also one of the most indebted and a large portion of its sponsorship is up for renegotiation. Given its recent failings on the field—losing the top spot in the Premier League to Manchester City—lower revenues in the near future are not out of the question.
In the filing, Manchester United also known as Man-U listed a large risk being the age of its manager, Alex Ferguson, who is 70 years old but has had tremendous success with the team since he joined in 1986. “Any successor to our current manager may not be as successful as our current manager,” the filing stated.
Man-U is majority owned by the family of businessman Malcolm Glazer, who also owns the National Football League’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The club originally wanted to list new shares worth $1 billion in Singapore, but it pulled out of that arrangement due to market conditions.
The U.S. shares would be listed as Class A shares, with one-tenth of the voting right per share as shares owned by the Glazer family, which will retain control of the club.
Manchester United, is one of the most successful soccer teams in Europe, and was recently valued by Forbes magazine as the world’s most valuable sports team, worth $2.24 billion. The New York Yankees and Dallas Cowboys tie for second place.
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