Man.United supporters cautious about IPO

Manchester United supporters gave a guarded welcome to the club’s planned US share sale on Wednesday, warning the move could only be deemed a success if it helped to pay off the Red Devils’ massive debts. United, the most successful club in English football history and reputedly the best supported club in the world, filed papers in the United States on Tuesday for an initial public share offering. The papers gave a pro-forma amount of $100 million as the target for the share issue, but recent reports about abortive attempts to list it in Hong Kong or Singapore said the owners had aimed to bring in $1 billion. The team, controlled since 2005 by the Glazer family billionaire US sports investors  has struggled in recent years with debts from the takeover despite possessing arguably the world’s strongest global fan base. United fans have long protested the Glazers’ heavily leveraged takeover, arguing the debts loaded onto the club have steadily eroded its ability to compete for top talent in an ever-spiralling transfer market. United appeared to acknowledge the crippling impact of the club’s debt burden in the papers filed in New York. “Our indebtedness could adversely affect our health and competitive position ... reduce availability of our cash flow to fund the hiring and retention of players and coaching staff,” the papers noted. “We intend to use all of our net proceeds from this offering to reduce our indebtedness.” Duncan Drasdo, chief executive of the Manchester United Supporters’ Trust (MUST), welcomed the plan to reduce the club’s debt, saying the wording of the filing vindicated the group’s long-held concerns. “If it turns out that the vast majority of the proceeds are used to pay off the debt that is certainly something MUST would welcome and entirely vindicates our longstanding position that their debt was damaging our club,” Drasdo said. “The destination of the funds shows the Glazers have finally conceded this as their filing includes health warnings.” Tensions over United’s finances hit a peak in 2010, when the club’s liabilities topped £1 billion ($1.55 billion) and fans rebelled at management, launching protests aimed at denying the club revenues.