new york reds: Man Utd to make stock exchange debut in the States

THEY say that Wayne Rooney can only score in Manchester, but his club will be hoping to score in the United States when it makes its stock market debut on the New York Stock Exchange, writes Bernard Ginns.
By The Newsroom
Published 5th Jul 2012, 07:00 BST

After first eyeing a Hong Kong IPO, the former Premier League champions had planned a $1bn listing in Singapore in the second half of last year before putting plans on hold because of market turmoil.

The US-owned club ended months of speculation yesterday when it filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to raise up to $100m in an initial public offering of its Class A ordinary shares in New York.

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Manchester United has a global fan base of 659 million, with almost half in the Asia-Pacific region.

“It remains to be seen how much the football club is going to benefit in the US where the sport is not very popular,” said Jay Ritter, a University of Florida IPO expert.

“The perfect place for it to have listed should have been London.”

The club’s American proprietors, the Glazer family, are well known in the United States as owners of American football team the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

However, they have faced opposition from United fans after taking over the club in 2005 in a leveraged buyout that left it saddled with hefty debt repayments.

Related topics:United StatesWayne RooneyManchesterHong KongPremier LeagueNew York