Manchester United plans New York IPO
05 Jul 2012
Manchester United Ltd, the celebrated English soccer club seeks New York listing through a $100-million initial public offering (IPO), a filing with the US Securities Exchange Commission revealed.
Manchester United did not disclose the price or how many shares it would offer. It is expected that the issue size of $100 billion could be revised upwards.
The offering will have dual share structure with Class A and Class B ordinary shares. Each Class A share is entitled to one vote per share and is not convertible to any other shares while each Class B share is entitled to 10 votes per share and is convertible into one Class A share at any time.
The privileged football club is owned by US billionaire Malcolm Glazer and his family, who purchased it in 2005 for £790 million.
Glazer planned to raise $1 billion in a Singapore IPO of the soccer club last August, but shelved the plan due to stock market volatility. Formula One, another prestigious motor sports franchise also delayed its planned $2.5-billion Singapore IPO in June due to jittery markets.
Glazer's Delaware-based Red Football LLC controls Manchester United through UK's Red Football Shareholder Ltd.