GLAZERS PUT UNITED ON MARKET FOR £5BILLION
United owners to end 17-year reign...with GB’s richest man keen
MANCHESTER UNITED last night revealed that the Glazer family are ready to sell the world’s biggest football club. United confirmed the sensational news in a statement saying the American owners are exploring ‘strategic alternatives, including new investment into the club, a sale, or other transactions’.
United have appointed the Raine Group and Rothschild and Co as the club’s exclusive financial advisors. The hated American owners have been in power at Old Trafford for 17 years since a leveraged £790million buyout in 2005. It’s understood they will listen to offers in excess of £5billion but may demand as much as £9bn.
A statement from the family last night said they are ready to ‘evaluate all options’.
MANCHESTER United’s owners are willing to sell the club in a sensational deal worth more than £5billion, it emerged last night.
The Glazer family confirmed they are seeking investment that could lead to a takeover of the world’s biggest football club.
Investment bankers have been instructed to advise on the process which could alternatively include an injection of cash on a smaller scale or a strategic partnership.
Executive co- chairmen Avram and Joel Glazer said: ‘We will evaluate all options to ensure that we best serve our fans and that Manchester United maximize the significant growth opportunities available to the club.’
The hated American owners have been under pressure from fan groups for some time to end their 17-year reign at Old Trafford which has been criticised from the outset over the leveraged £ 790million purchase in 2005 which heaped huge debt on United.
The Glazers had resisted calls to go but they are now considering sources of outside investment to help fund the rebuilding of Old Trafford and revamp of the club’s Carrington training complex which could lead to a buy-out.
It is thought that only an offer in excess of £5bn — and possibly as high as £9bn — would persuade them to sell up.
The news will inevitably spark interest from around the globe as well as in the UK. Sir Jim Ratcliffe, Britain’srichest man and a lifelong United fan, has long been linked with a bid for the club.
After the INEOS billionaire failed with a late bid for Chelsea in May, a spokesman for Ratcliffe confirmed: ‘If the club (United) is for sale, Jim is definitely a potential buyer.’
Chelsea were bought by American businessman Todd Boehly for £4.25bn, and earlier this month it was revealed that Liverpool’s US owners Fenway Sports Group are open to selling the Anfield club after appointing Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to oversee new investment with the potential for a takeover.
Industry insiders were last night speculating that the figures on offer to the Premier League’s foreign owners combined with the grim economic forecast in the UK is tempting them to sell.
There is also the issue of the failed European Super League which scuppered the hopes of English football’s biggest clubs to set up a more lucrative competition which would also have been a closed shop without the threat of relegation. It is perhaps no surprise that FSG and the Glazers are looking to cash in 13 months after it collapsed.
The news will be welcomed by the vast majority of the club’s fans. But the Manchester United Supporters’ Trust warned last night: ‘While supporters have long called for change, of course this has to be the right change.’ The family did put a minority stake in the club up for sale a decade ago but made sure they kept overall control through a dual-class share structure which endured they retained the majority of the voting rights.
More recently, the Glazers have been looking to bring in a fan share scheme that would give supporters the same level of voting rights but that has yet to be implemented.
Despite their unpopularity over the buyout in 2005, the Glazers enjoyed an early period of success at United with Sir Alex Ferguson as manager. But since Ferguson and chief executive David Gill retired in 2013, the club have been without a Premier League title in almost a decade and have won just a handful of trophies.
Although the Glazers have spent well over £1billion on new signings in that time — and a club record £220m in the summer transfer window — they have failed to win over fans who continue to protest regularly inside and outside Old Trafford.