Manchester United looks East for $1-bn IPO

England's Premiership champions, Manchester United, is planning to raise £600 million ($1 billion) through a partial floatation on the Singapore Stock Exchange (SGX) to clear the club's outstanding debts, currently over £500 million.

According to several media reports, the Malcolm Glazer family, the club's Florida-based owners who own the club following a leveraged buy-out in 2005, have late last week filed a listing application with the SGX for raising £600 million by selling 30 per cent of their stake.

The partial listing would give the club an enterprise value of about $3.8 billion, with the Glazer's retaining 70-per cent stake worth around $2.8 billion.

The Glazer family is reported to have hired J P Morgan, Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley as joint book runners for the planned initial public offering.

Manchester United, the most successful British football team of all times has also hired Hong Kong-based BOC International, Malaysia's CIMB, Singapore's DBS and pan-Asian investment bank CLSA as joint lead managers.

The Glazer family bought Manchester United for £790 million ($1.3 billion) in 2005 in a highly leveraged buyout, which loaded the club with huge debts because they invested just £300 million of their own money and funded the rest with crippling loans from banks and hedge funds.