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Manchester United targets $300m in New York IPO

Manchester United is looking to raise $300m (£191.61m) on an initial public offering (IPO) in New York in order to pay down the company’s £425m net debt.

After demand for its shares fell short, the club has given up earlier attempts in Hong Kong, Singapore and the UK since announcing its plans to go public last year.

The football club, owned by Glazer family, the well-know, US-based football team owner, plans to launch its IPO next week.

The Glazer family aims to keep the main control of the club through a dual-class share structure that will give the family’s class B shares 10 votes, while the class A public shareholders only get one vote.

The evidence of magnificent control could be revealed by the consists of Manchester United’s board of directors, the four-member board, two of Glazer’s sons and two executives of the club.

Manchester United has not yet provided audited financial results beyond the fiscal year ended June 2011, instead, two weeks ago, filing an exemption as an “emerging growth company” under the US JoBs Act, which allows companies with annual revenues of less than $1bn to postpone some financial documents for up to five years.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Yu-Chih Lin .