Obviously we all know they have applied to be listed on the NYSE. But what does it mean? Let's have a friendly discussion, I took this report from SI.com "The record 19-time English champions filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday 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 - a place-holding figure that could change before the offering becomes effective. 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 reorganization, 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 Glazers completed a leveraged buyout valued at $1.47 billion. The Glazers also own the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers. United has been looking to raise funds to help reduce debts from the 2005 takeover that were 423 million pounds ($663 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 2008, has been valued at $2.24 billion by Forbes magazine, ranking it as soccer's most valuable club for the eighth year in a row. The Red Devils 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 soccer'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. A nearly 300-page prospectus to the SEC contains a series of warnings about the state of the club's finances. The filing says "our indebtedness could adversely affect our financial health and competitive position" and reduce "the availability of our cash flow to fund the hiring and retention of players and coaching staff." United also warns that new UEFA spending restrictions "could negatively affect our business." European soccer's governing body is phasing in spending restrictions over several seasons, known as Financial Fair Play. Under the rules, clubs have to break even from soccer operations, or they risk being excluded from European competitions starting with the 2014-15 season. But United is by far English soccer's biggest moneymaker, helping to soften the impact of its debt. The filing revealed the club received 25.6 million pounds from Nike in 2010-11 under its 303 million pound, 13-year deal with the equipment supplier, which has three years remaining, and another 5.7 million pounds as its split of the profits. Its shirt sponsorship with the insurance company AON, which runs through the 2013-14 season, and a separate agreement with the company that runs through June 2015 guarantees 88 million pounds, up from a 14 million pound-a-year deal with AIG that ran for three years through the 2009-10 season. New media and mobile revenue alone was 17.2 million pounds in 2011. Managers of the offering are Jefferies & Co. Inc., Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC, J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, BofA Merrill Lynch and Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. United does not intend to pay dividends to shareholders." So, what does it mean?
I am intrigued by the move to the Cayman Islands, surely this is a tax dodge? Anyway, there is lots of revealing information in the actual document apparently...if you want to read it it is here... http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1549107/000104746912007026/a2210109zf-1.htm Another article outlining the risks involved is here... http://blogs.marketwatch.com/thetell/2012/07/03/51-risk-factors-from-manchester-uniteds-ipo-filing/ Happy reading
Of course, just setting the debate up as the news broke, and you never know...this board might have users that live outside of the UK and might also have users that use this site outside of your 'reasonable hours'
Lifted from the prospectus... "This prospectus contains industry, market, and competitive position data that are based on the six industry publications and studies conducted by third parties listed below as well as our own internal estimates and research. These industry publications and third-party studies generally state that the information that they contain has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, although they do not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of such information. While we believe that each of these publications and third-party studies is reliable, we have not independently verified the market and industry data obtained from these third-party sources. While we believe our internal research is reliable and the definition of our market and industry are appropriate, neither such research nor these definitions have been verified by any independent source. References to our "659 million followers" are based on a survey conducted by Kantar Media (a division of WPP plc) and paid for by us. As in the survey conducted by Kantar Media, we define the term "followers" as those individuals who answered survey questions, unprompted, with the answer that Manchester United was either their favorite football team in the world or a football team that they enjoyed following. For example, we and Kantar Media included in the definition of "follower" a respondent who either watched live Manchester United matches, followed highlights coverage or read or talked about Manchester United regularly. Although the survey solicited unprompted responses, we do not distinguish between those respondents who answered that Manchester United was their favorite football team in the world and those who enjoy following Manchester United. Since we believe that each of our followers engage with our brand in some capacity, including through watching matches on television, attending matches live, buying retail merchandise or monitoring the team's highlights on the internet, we believe identifying our followers in this manner provides us with the best data to use for purposes of developing our business strategy and measuring the penetration of our brand. However, we expect there to be differences in the level of engagement with our brand between individuals, including among those who consider Manchester United to be their favorite team, as well as between those who enjoy following Manchester United. We have not identified any practical way to measure these differences in consumer behavior and any references to our followers in this prospectus should be viewed in that light. This internet-based survey identified Manchester United as a supported team of 659 million followers and was based on 53,287 respondents from 39 countries around the world. In order to calculate our 659 million followers from the 53,287 responses, Kantar Media applied estimates and assumptions to certain factors including population size, country specific characteristics such as wealth and GDP per capita, affinity for sports and media penetration. Kantar Media then extrapolated the results to the rest of the world, representing an extrapolated adult population of 5 billion people. However, while Kantar Media believes the extrapolation methodology was robust and consistent with consumer research practices, as with all surveys, there are inherent limitations in extrapolating survey results to a larger population than those actually surveyed. As a result of these limitations, our number of followers may be significantly less or significantly more than the extrapolated survey results. Kantar Media also extrapolated survey results to account for non-internet users in certain of the 39 countries, particularly those with low internet penetration. To do so, Kantar Media had to make assumptions about the preferences and behaviors of non-internet users in those countries. These assumptions reduced the number of our followers in those countries and there is no guarantee that the assumptions we applied are accurate. Survey results also account only for claimed consumer behavior rather than actual consumer behavior and as a result, survey results may not reflect real consumer behavior with respect to football or the consumption of our content and products." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha, so if you watch a United game, you are a 'follower' and are thus included in the global estimate of United fans!!! What a ****in joke! And they extrapolated their 659M followers from a survey of less than 60,000 people! Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha! Fair play to them, they are trying to sell the club to an audience as such,,,but those figures are absolutely ridiculous and embarrassing to read...39 countries were polled around the world, **** me...there are 47 countries in Europe alone and 200 odd in the world!!! I might as well have conducted that survey in my house...me and my missus both do not support United, therefore no one in the world supports United! Later on in the prospectus it says this..."We enjoy the support of our global community of 659 million followers." Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha, I cant wait to read the rest of this ****e, I am only on page 3, 200 odd more to go! This is like Michael Owen's brochure, but worse...whoring themselves out to anyone who will listen to the **** that they spout...anyone with an iota of business sense would swerve them, alas...it has been seen that people who invest in stuff like this are not the shrewdest people in the world, hence why we all have to work longer and pay more taxes! So I guess people will swallow it and invest in a company that manipulates its figures!
It's basically me being bored on a night shift...is that voluminous enough for you? Rather than comment on my posting times, why not enter the debate? If you have something else to say that is? Why not talk about United's debt, or the fees that were paid to the Glazer's sons, or the £244M interest payments that could have bought United Nasri, Aguero and Van Persie for say £120M and paid them £150k for the next 5 years...isn't that worthy of your opinion? No, you want to talk about the times that I post comment....fair enough! I eagerly await your response...or lack of it more likely!
Put simply I don't care enough about what some obsessed jumped up little fecker has to say. You really make it too obvious.
Fair enough if you feel that way. But actually, this is about your club, not me! You clearly don't have an opinion on the actual matter that I raised, or if you do you do not want to state it...which makes me wonder why on Earth you are actually using this forum! This is an article about United's finances, yet you decide to attack me and offer no input whatsoever towards the actual thread topic... I really do not understand that, offer something, anything, towards the debate...what do you think about it? Anything at all? Or are you just happy to leave your imprint on this thread as being one that logged the times of my posts? Some fan...
If it was that simple then why did they not do this years ago? There must be more to this idea than simply raising money to pay off the debt, didn't they suggest this idea before on the Singapore market, what happened there? If it was so simple then why did that idea fall on its arse? It seems to me that this is quite desperate, opening up the whole can of worms that is the United financial situation to the world does not seem to be a simple option. Showing the world that you have had to pay £244M in interest payments over the last 3 years does not imo offer confidence to potential investors, investors that apparently will have no say in the club at all!
Yes I am biased, but surely your opinion counts for something? Why not let us all know it, is that not the point of you being on this forum? If you want to just attack me then fair enough, but by actually commenting on this thread and then not offering an opinion, makes you look a bit pathetic imo! Have you never debated/discussed/commented with someone who is biased before? I doubt that, but now you feel it is okay for you to have such a stance! Fair enough, but I know and you know that you have done that in the past...but now you want to be silent cos I am biased...yeah ok mate! I guess you wont reply cos you don't want to have any discourse with me, bye then!
So why are you telling us, the share offer is so 80s, and I for one is not dumb enough to take it up, but there is always someone who will buy into it. The Singapore market was put on hold due to recession.
Does that not apply to the American market, even more so? I don't have the answers here, I am just speculating and asking questions!
I don't know...maybe I was hoping that you would treat the forum in the way that most people treat forums, i.e. have some input into the debate! Unfortunately I was clearly mistaken, you have nothing to say, except criticizing me that is...fair enough!
The people who set up FC Utd must be spitting feathers, they warned of this **** years ago and were shouted down. The glazers have saddled utd with massize debts to buy the club and have extracted money out of them, thatshould have gone to the club. Say what you like about Roman, but he backed chelsea with his own money, no matter what you think of its sources, not ****ing debts purchase and then charging "Management" fees!
Green & yellow scarfs to make a come back.............till you get tired of quietly protesting I guess.
