Man Utd v Glazer Rumour

[manker]

Here is what I found:

LONDON (AP) - Tampa Bay Buccaneers owner Malcolm Glazer took complete control of Manchester United on Monday by increasing his stake in the world's richest soccer club to more than 75 percent.

Glazer bought more shares to take his ownership level to 75.70 percent by the end of Monday's trading, Glazer's Red Football Ltd. said in a statement to the London Stock Exchange.

With 75 percent, Glazer can place his personal debt on United's books and take the club off the stock exchange and into private ownership. Manchester United has been listed on the stock exchange since 1991.

The NFL, which usually frowns upon cross-ownership, isn't sure if its rules would prevent Glazer from owning a foreign club. The league's finance committee will discuss it during spring meetings in Washington next week.

http://msn.foxsports.com/soccer/story/3616476

Cheers for that. I wonder if they'll make him choose between the two.

Altho' he could always put one of the clubs in his son's name if need be.

[RPerry]

Here is what I found:




http://msn.foxsports.com/soccer/story/3616476

Cheers for that. I wonder if they'll make him choose between the two.

Altho' he could always put one of the clubs in his son's name if need be.

If your still on that site with the link I gave you, do a search on "Glazer" and you'll see he will indeed have all three of his sons involved. I don't know about playing the name change game though, or he could have done that here and bought the Angels

[JPaul]

I read a piece in the Graudian today regarding the make-up of the deal. Without going into exact figures it appears that a large chunk of the finance has come from Hedge Funds, a rather interesting thing which a bank clerk would do a better job of explaining.

In essence he does not have to service that part of the debt just now, however the interest they charge is about 13% (a.p.r. presumably). Bottom line, as I understand it is that he has borrowed that money, with a view to not servicing that debt in the short term, however in the long term it will be more expensive.

It is therefore considered that he will have to raise those funds elsewhere fairly quickly. Either from his own resources, or from elsewhere. In order to raise the money from elsewhere he will have to show that the revenue streams are increasing fairly dramatically. Then he can sell off shed loads of shares at a profit, i.e over the 300p he "bought" them at.

Given that the club made around £58,000,000 profit last year that is going to be a good trick. Paricularly as it did not have to find the £20,000,000 interest which is now there, like the proverbial albatross.

To me this is a high risk strategy, with the potential for great gains to Glazer. However it puts the whole future of the club in serious doubt. Hedge funds are little more than the seriously wealthy playing high stakes poker with shares.

[manker]

I read a piece in the Graudian today regarding the make-up of the deal. Without going into exact figures it appears that a large chunk of the finance has come from Hedge Funds, a rather interesting thing which a bank clerk would do a better job of explaining.

In essence he does not have to service that part of the debt just now, however the interest they charge is about 13% (a.p.r. presumably). Bottom line, as I understand it is that he has borrowed that money, with a view to not servicing that debt in the short term, however in the long term it will be more expensive.

It is therefore considered that he will have to raise those funds elsewhere fairly quickly. Either from his own resources, or from elsewhere. In order to raise the money from elsewhere he will have to show that the revenue streams are increasing fairly dramatically. Then he can sell off shed loads of shares at a profit, i.e over the 300p he "bought" them at.

Given that the club made around £58,000,000 profit last year that is going to be a good trick. Paricularly as it did not have to find the £20,000,000 interest which is now there, like the proverbial albatross.

To me this is a high risk strategy, with the potential for great gains to Glazer. However it puts the whole future of the club in serious doubt. Hedge funds are little more than the seriously wealthy playing high stakes poker with shares.

A hedge fund is a loan where payment is received in kind (sometimes these funds are referred to as piks). The initial amount was received by Glazer and rather than paying back the total amount, plus interest, over a number of years in installments, the pik is to be paid back after a certain period of time. In this case I'd guess five years but no-one knows the details of this yet. When this happens Glazer will have to restructure his loans, this either means more piks, since he'll never raise that amount by conventional finance, or floating the club again.

The interest part is what makes a hedge fund different from some other piks. As JP said, this interest can be deferred and I suspect it's what Glazer will do in part. However, since this form of finance is far more risky than normal loaning arrangements and given the volitile nature of soccer clubs, I expect the interest rate to be at least 17%.

To cover this interest and the interest arising from the other £275million that Glazer has secured against his own property (not that of United's), profits will have to double (IMO). Incidentally, altho' Glazer may elect not to pay off the interest, the interest charge will still be shown in the P&L, reducing profits and making the club appear less solvent on the balance sheet - hence less attractive to potential investors.

Of course he could not bother paying any interest and hope that when he does float the club again, he'll get substantially more than £3 per share - but this won't happen if the club hasn't been successful or if the club hasn't managed to find other revenue streams, ie the profits remain at the same level.

Catch 22.


I'm missing the bit where Glazer can make some money.

[JPaul]

It's not from ticket sales, they are already full all the time and the price increases were already allowed for.

That leaves

TV deal, they may move to doing their own deal with SKY - fecking smaller clubs at the same time. Probably in association with other large clubs.

Sponsorship.

Merchandising.

Prize Money.

Other e.g. Man U TV, affinity credit card etc.

Given that Man U were probably the best run club in the world, at least financially, it is difficult to see what he will be able to do to improve income. Unless he already has some substantial deals in place or pending.

[manker]

Yup, the areas you've listed will be extremely difficult to improve upon.

In theory he has to produce a mission statement type document before Friday, whether he will or not or how vague this document will be isn't known but I guess it may provide some answers.

[Barbarossa]

TV deal, they may move to doing their own deal with SKY - fecking smaller clubs at the same time. Probably in association with other large clubs.

http://uk.sports.yahoo.com/050518/4/ayzj.html

Hmmm, well it sounds like he hasn't done his homework...

[Busyman]

He needs to concentrate on better play and marketing.

The TV deal is toast unless they make better inroads into the American market. I've watched soccer every once and awhile but even the MLS has got a ways to go.

The dumb thing is I remember English League Soccer being on pay-per view.
Not very smart.

[RPerry]

Glazer looking to close acquisition Reuters LONDON -- U.S. tycoon Malcolm Glazer plans to delist Manchester United as early as June 22 as part of his $1.5 billion takeover, his bankers said on Monday. In a statement, investment bank Rothschild said Glazer planned to apply to the UK's listing authority to cancel Manchester United Plc's listing from the London Stock Exchange, on June 22 "or as soon thereafter as is practicable".

Rothschild made the statement as it posted Glazer's offer document to shareholders, kicking off a timetable for the U.S. financier to close his acquisition of the 15-times English champions.Glazer already owns 76.2 percent of United after acquiring a key stake from the club's biggest shareholder and snapping up other shares over the past two weeks.Shareholders will be able to sell their shares to Glazer until 1400 GMT on June 13, Rothschild said.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/headlin...334148&cc=5901

[Rat Faced]

I think comparing Man U to Leeds is a little below the belt.















Leeds havent got anywhere near that amount of debt