Thursday, August 18, 2011

Why Man Utd Asian float could backfire on Glazers

With gross debts of £515m and annual interest payments of £45m it looks like a no-brainer for Manchester United's owners, the ultra-secretive Glazer family, to try to raise a large sum of money with a partial flotation in Asia.

Initial estimates suggest the Americans could bring in anywhere between £400m and £600m for selling off 25 to 30 per cent of the club's parent company.

That would value the club at around £1.7bn and not only potentially help reduce the bond the Glazers took out in January 2010 but pay down any other private debts the Glazers have.

Despite announcing the controversial and hugely expensive PIK loans which helped them acquire the club back in 2005 had been paid off last November, the suspicion in the City and among United fans groups is that the loan was simply transferred from one group of hedge funds to another single hedge fund.

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