Manchester United - Biz, Financial news 'n rumors

[Supernan]

10 alesan fans makin benci sama orang Yanks nih (glazer's family)

Ten ways the Glazers have raped our club



Manchester United’s financial situation is in the spotlight this week after the club announced a £500 million bond aimed at reducing the £70 million annual interest burden. But the Prospectus for the club’s market offer served to highlight the myriad of ways the Glazer family is riding roughshod over our 132 year-old club.

Here’s ten reasons to hate them just a little bit more:

Piling on the debt
When Malcolm Glazer and Sons walked into United four and a half years ago the 132 year-old institution was the most profitable club on the planet. Today, United is still the most profitable club on the planet with £700 million of debt piled on the club’s books that will not be repaid for a more than a decade. If ever.

£325 million in interest repayments
The full extent of the Glazer’s leveraged buyout, revealed today in the latest club figures, is horrifying. Forget the official debt statement, which shows a ‘mere’ £260 million interest burden. Factor in rolled-up interest from the family’s Payment in King (PIK) loans and United could have gone on a Real Madrid-style mega spending spree. Twice over.

Doubling ticket prices
The 100% increase in ticket prices at Old Trafford since the family’s arrival in Manchester is hardly surprising but no less acceptable. The Stretford End is long since gone and football’s gentrification well established before Glazer waltzed into the club. But prices are now out of the reach of many – a generation of fans can no longer see the club live

The disgraceful way they use United’s heritage in their debt marketing literature
Duncan Edwards, George Best and Sir Matt Busby will be turning in their graves tonight. The Glazer family, seemingly without a hint of irony, used images from United’s glorious past to sell the club’s massively indebted future. Sickening.

Taking millions for themselves
If it wasn’t enough that the Glazer family indebted United to the hilt, the family’s glossy prospectus let the fans into a little known secret. Disgracefully, immorally but unfortunately not illegally, the family has taken £22.9m million out of the club in consulting fees and loans in the past two years. Talk about milking the club for all it’s worth.

Charging £6 million a season for ‘consultancy’
Don’t worry readers the pillage doesn’t stop with any refinancing package! Buried deep inside the Glazers’ 322 page Prospectus the family confirm that they will take £6 million a season for companies linked to the family. Laughably, United supporters, you will be paying for the family’s ‘consultancy’ and ‘management’ of the club’s huge debt.

Negative transfer spending
Lets talk about facts. During the family’s ownership of United, net transfer spending is negative. That is: United has made more money selling players than the club has spent on bringing new talent into the club in the past four and a half years. Those who still back the family’s ownership point to three Premier League titles and a European cup. For that, only Sir Alex Ferguson deserves thanks.

Selling the club’s best player and using it for their own debt repayment
Cristiano Ronaldo’s departure to Real Madrid was inevitable once the player had made up his mind but Sir Alex has not been backed in the transfer market. The Scot talks about value but few now believe that the claim is anything more than a ruse. Today’s prospectus revealed that £70 million of United’s reserves will now pay down the family’s own debt.

Trying to make the word franchise acceptable
Manchester United is a 132 year-old institution, one of the oldest and most venerable clubs on the planet, supported by millions, whose history has been central to the world’s most popular sport. One thing United is not is a FRANCHISE. McDonald’s, Domino’s, Starbucks – franchises bought and sold. Still, the family manages to call the club a franchise not once, not twice, but three times in their prospectus. Some never learn.

Malcom Glazer’s ginger beard

[B4YU]

Glazers open the door to sale of Manchester United's training ground

The ownership of Manchester United's Carrington training complex could be transferred to a holding company controlled by the Glazer family and leased back to the club, according to the prospectus *circulated to potential investors in a £500m refinancing scheme this week.

The £500m bond and a new £75m credit facility, which will add to an overall debt pile of more than £700m, will be secured on the majority of property owned by Manchester United, including Old Trafford.

But Carrington, the state of the art *complex that opened in 2000 to replace Manchester United's old training ground The Cliff, is specifically exempted.

"The Carrington training ground will not be encumbered and may in due course be transferred to a holding company or affiliate of the Parent. In the latter event, we will be granted a lease in respect of the Carrington training ground," said the offer document in a section describing Manchester United's business and assets.

The club currently own the freehold on Carrington and the idea of one of the assets most readily associated with them being transferred to the Glazers' own holding company, and potentially sold, will cause further disquiet among fans concerned that money continues to flow out of Old Trafford despite consistent success on the pitch.

The prospect of the club losing the training ground has disturbing echoes of Leeds United, who during their financial collapse were forced to sell their Thorp Arch training ground and lease it back.

Covering 108 acres near the village from which it takes its name and dubbed "Fortress Carrington" by locals thanks to the high security fences that surround it, the complex contains 14 pitches of varying sizes as well as physiotherapy and rehabilitation areas, restaurants, conference rooms and a TV studio.

Companies undertaking a bond issue are legally bound to list all kinds of potential risks attached to the offer, and the MU Finance plc prospectus contains warnings over everything from the potential impact of Sir Alex Ferguson's retirement to terrorist attacks and the danger of football becoming less popular.

But here too it is made clear that the indenture covering the bond issue's notes "will limit our ability to sell or transfer, but not *prohibit us from selling or transferring, our training ground or our stadium". If either is sold, it says it will enter into a long-term lease "to enable us to have substantially the same access to such property as we currently do".

Representatives of fans' groups that have long opposed the Glazer takeover said that the detail contained in the offer document, including the revelation that the family had taken £22.9m in management fees and loans out of the club, would increase levels of discontent. "People are starting to connect the fact that they are asking us to stump up more in ticket prices and they're not investing in the squad and on top of that they are taking money out for themselves. That is going to make it difficult to get away with another rise," said Duncan Drasdo, chief executive of the Manchester United Supporters' Trust.

The 322-page prospectus, the basis for a bond offer that most experts expect to be priced at around 9%, sets out in great detail the "high degree of risk" involved, together with the Glazers' strategy for continuing to maximise revenues.

Results released this week showed that income from matchday operations, TV contracts and commercial activities continued to rise, contributing to an increase in turnover to £276.8m. But without a £80.7m profit from transfer activities, including the sale of Ronaldo to Real Madrid, the club would have made a substantial loss. It also reveals that United have already received almost half of a new £80m four-year shirt sponsorship deal with Aon upfront, despite it not beginning until next season. It prioritises the targeting of new sponsors in areas not traditionally associated with football as a means of generating further revenue growth.

City sources expect the bond issue to succeed if it is priced and marketed correctly. But there were some dissenting voices yesterday, arguing that the yield from the bond should be closer to 9.5% given the company's profile and questioning the wisdom of investing in an unrated bond in such an uncertain sector.

"Most traditional high-yield investors won't touch this," Jonathan Moore, a high-yield analyst at Evolution Securities told Bloomberg yesterday. "It's unrated, so some investors can't take it, and there's a very busy new-issue calendar so there are plenty of alternatives. Most people just won't focus on something with far too much leverage, limited free cash flow and lumpy earnings."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/jan/13/glazers-manchester-united-training-ground

[hendiplast]

Sold Trafford: Glazers ready to sell Manchester United's home to ease crippling debt



Manchester United's debt-ridden owners the Glazers have for the first time raised the previously unthinkable prospect of selling Old Trafford.

The American family had steadfastly refused to consider such a controversial move since they plunged the club into debt when taking it into private ownership in 2005.

But in the prospectus sent out to potential investors ahead of a £500million bond issue, the Glazers have warned that ‘the indenture governing the Notes (bonds) will limit our ability to sell or transfer, but not prohibit us from selling or transferring our training ground facilities and our stadium.’


The prospectus also reveals that:

The club has none of its own money for new players.

United may have to SELL players to service the debt in the future.

The Glazers may have to refinance AGAIN in the near future.

The club has already drawn down a £36m cash advance on an £80m four-year shirt sponsorship deal that doesn’t begin until the summer.

Fears about Old Trafford will concern fans the most, however, with many suspecting that the Glazers intend to sell and then lease back United’s famous stadium and the state-of-the-art training ground at Carrington.

Ever since the Glazers bought their club, United supporters have suspected that the ground would one day be sold or, at the very least, renamed.

In a section of the prospectus headlined ‘risks related to our debt’, investors are warned: ‘Although in the sale or transfer of any of these properties, the transferee will be required to enter into a long-term lease with us to enable us to continue to have substantially the same access to such property as we currently do, if we sell or transfer either or both of these properties, we will no longer control them.’

It is understood the Glazers are required by law to outline all possible risk to potential investors in the document.

It is also the case that the Carrington training centre is much more likely to be sold as the family have deliberately not secured any of their credit facilities against it, as they have with the stadium.

Nevertheless, industry experts last night stressed that using Old Trafford as security in this latest round of refinancing does not offer the stadium any particular protection against its sale in the future.

As regards Carrington — opened 10 years ago — it appears its future is in genuine doubt as the document reveals it ‘may in due course be transferred to a holding company or affiliate of the Parent. In the latter event, we will be granted a lease’.

Figures show that United have not spent a net penny on player transfers for three years. Manager Sir Alex Ferguson is likely to have to dip in to a new £75m credit facility if he is to spend more than he can raise through sales this summer.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football

[hendiplast]

Manchester United finance shock: Have Glazers put Red Devils on the road to meltdown?



They boast of having 469million followers around the world but then warn that they may have to sell their own stadium. They are the most valuable football club in the world - worth £1.2billion according to Forbes - but have no money of their own to buy players.

This is Manchester United 2010; Manchester United the Glazer way. Fears of financial meltdown have stalked the dreams of supporters since the Glazer family took their club into private ownership in 2005.

Now - as they tour the world trying to raise £500m to ease the burden of debts worth £699m - United's owners have put down in black and white just what their four-and-half turbulent years have done to England's most famous football club.

Here are five warning signs from the 'Preliminary Offering Memorandum' distributed to potential investors this week.

1. Selling Old Trafford and Carrington training ground

United need to raise money and quickly. One way they can do this is to sell their assets and then lease them back. Previously, they have denied they would do this but in the document the club admit that:

'The indenture governing the Notes (bonds) will limit our ability to sell or transfer, but not prohibit us from selling or transferring, our training ground facilities and our stadium.

'Although in the sale or transfer of any of these properties, the transferee will be required to enter into a long-term lease with us to enable us to continue to have substantially the same access to such property as we currently do, if we sell or transfer either or both of these properties, we will no longer control them.'

In the short term it is unlikely that United will sell Old Trafford. The training ground, however, is already under consideration.



Investment for the future: The impressive Manchester United Football Academy at Carrington


2. Player Spending is zero

The club made a £7m profit on player spending over the last three financial years ending June 20, 2009. In other words, they have spent nothing.

Now they are admitting they will have to use their recently arranged £75m credit facility to buy players this summer and the prospectus says: 'Although we have not historically drawn on our revolving credit facilities in the summer window, if we seek to acquire players with values substantially in excess of the values of players we seek to sell, we may be required to draw from our revolving credit facilities to meet our cash needs.'

3. The debt could get worse

The document warns that the Glazers may need to refinance their spiralling debts again in the future.

It says: 'We believe the proceeds of this offering ... will be sufficient ... to meet our capital requirements and pay our interest.

However, if cash flows are less than projected, we will require additional debt or financing in amounts that could be substantial.'

4. This could require United to sell players

Despite their massive turnover and unrivalled income streams from match days, commerce and the media, United broke even last year only because of the £80m sale of winger Cristiano Ronaldo to Real Madrid in a world-record transfer deal.

The prospectus warns that player sales could be necessary again and adds that the club's debts could: 'Require us to dedicate a substantial portion of our cash flow to pay the debt, thereby reducing the availability of our cash flow to fund the hiring and retention of talented players.'

5. Spending money they haven't got

This summer United will officially begin a lucrative four-year shirt sponsorship deal with American financial giant Aon which took just three weeks to thrash out.

The contract is worth a staggering £80m but the prospectus reveals that United have already had - and presumably spent - an advance of £36m.

HOW ARE UNITED SELLING THE BONDS?
In short, they are hitting the road and giving it the hard sell. Earlier this week they were in Hong Kong and Singapore. They will be in London, Paris, Frankfurt and Zurich over the next two days.

WHAT IS THE DOCUMENT?
It is a Preliminary Offering Memorandum, it is 298 pages long and is accessible to read in print or online.

WHAT IS IT FOR?
Its purpose is to encourage investors to buy a stake, or bond, in Manchester United to help the club alleviate its enormous debt. The bonds come in denominations of £50,000.

HOW DOES IT WORK?
United are paying a significant part of their £699million debt off at high interest rates. They will use the cash they raise here, ideally around £500m, to pay some of that off while rewarding their new bond holders with a return at a lower interest rate.

We are told that: 'Our net cash inflow for the year ended June 30, 2009 was £111.2m - a significant increase that reflects an advance payment of £35.9m as part of our new shirt sponsorship agreement.'


PS

But don't worry. The Glazers can still afford to pay themselves.

One of the most intriguing parts of the document is found deep on Page 89. Under the heading 'Related Party Transactions' we learn that the Glazer family Christmas of 2008 was made somewhat more merry by loans from United totalling some £10m.

It is also stated that United have agreed to pay a company connected to the Glazers an annual fee of £2.9m under a 'consultancy agreement', and that 'management and administration fees' of £0.6m, £1.8m, £1.4m, £3.1m and £3.1m have been paid to 'affiliates' since July 2006.

To save you the trouble, this all adds up to £22.9m!

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/

[Supernan]

Aduh akhir" ini makin menjadi nih Hot News krisis keuangan UNITED.

Ayo dunk orng kaya yg gila UNITED beli nih dr si Yanks, hehehe

Ternyata David Gill udh berkunjung ke negara" lain buat presentasi obligasi ini n penjualan Carington!!!


Manchester United go on the road to pitch £500m bond issue to potential investors
Manchester United chief executive David Gill will on Thursday pitch the club's £500 million bond issue to potential investors in London amid growing confidence in the Glazer camp that the refinancing initiative – which may include the sale of the club's Carrington training ground - will be successful.


By Paul Kelso
Published: 7:00AM GMT 14 Jan 2010



Gill and United's chief-of-staff, Edward Woodward, will meet major institutional investors, bankers and hedge funds in a series of presentations and one-to-one meetings during a three-day roadshow in the capital intended to secure the bulk of the investment.

The roadshow gives investors a chance to question club management on the fundamentals of the business and make a judgment on the attractiveness of the bond.

United made presentations in Edinburgh on Wednesday, Hong Kong and Singapore earlier this week and will pitch to American investors next week, and initial soundings from the markets have been positive.

The London roadshow is central to the bond issue being successful, although warm interest in Asia has encouraged confidence among the Glazers' advisers that the issue will be successful.

While some analysts have expressed scepticism about the attractiveness of the bond in a crowded market, The Daily Telegraph understands that significant orders in excess of £50 million have already been placed. There is an expectation within the Glazer team that orders will eventually run into billions.

If that is the case it will strengthen the Glazers' hand when they come to price the bond at the end of next week. The bond issue will remain at £500 million, but larger investors may have to settle for a smaller allocation.

Investors have been told that the coupon (annual interest) on the bond is likely to be around 8.5 per cent, but were the issue to be significantly oversubscribed their may be scope for the price to come down. The size of the order book may also prevent the Glazers having to sell the bonds at a discount.

The Glazers' optimism stems in part from the general strength of the bond market. There is also a conviction in the Americans' camp that scepticism expressed in the football community and the media at United's business model is not shared by investors.

While the Glazers' loading of more than £700 million of debt on to the club has enraged supporters' groups and alarmed some administrators, the financial community takes a more sanguine approach.

United's continued profitability and on-field success makes it the most attractive football investment, with pre-tax earnings of £91 million last year, up by £10 million on the previous season, interpreted as a comfortable cushion against the club's debt, which attracts interest in excess of £40 million a year.

"This is a well-run company whose owners have demonstrated it can get bigger and more successful," said one banker with knowledge of the sports market. "People will be attracted by the emotional link to United as well, but this is not a flaky investment. There is more risk in football than many other industries, but United are better protected than any other club."

While the club's financial performance continues to improve under the Glazers, the demands of servicing and reducing debt means the club have to run to stand still and the bond prospectus contains cautionary notes.

The revelation that the club sustained a £35 million loss on interest rate hedges, more than they have spent on any player in recent seasons, raises questions about the financial judgments being made.

One option outlined in the bond is for the club's Carrington training ground to be sold and leased back to the Glazers, creating a one-off injection of cash that could be used to reduce the Payment In Kind loans.

The club have also front-loaded the £80 million four-year deal with shirt sponsor Aon, taking £36 million up front, which is indicative of an immediate demand for cash.

The Old Trafford wage bill may also be a cause of some concern. While the total player wage bill of £120 million is a healthy 44 per cent of turnover, it has risen despite the sale of Christiano Ronaldo, formerly the club's highest earner.

Figures for the three months to September 2009 show a nine per cent rise.

[derry07cantona]

ada apa united????

segitu parahkah sampe2 rooney dan pemain2 bintang lainnya 'diisukan' bakal dijual???

[erin]

apa sebenarx yg sdg MU alami??
makin miris ajh ngeliat berita2 soal MU dan utang2x...
rooney dan carrick pun dibilang bakal dijual?

[fredrian.seven]

Adakah cara agar glazer keluar dari MU? apapun caranya... orang itu nggak pantes di MU!

[Supernan]

Originally Posted by fredrian.seven

Adakah cara agar glazer keluar dari MU? apapun caranya... orang itu nggak pantes di MU!

Gampang bro.

Cari orang kaya yang gila United. Kalo bisa beli tuh 1 miliar Pound. Soalnya Glazer ga bakal jual dengan harga yg sama pas dia beli 700juta. blom buat biaya pengelolaan klub.

Trus pastiin tuh orng mw ga profit dalam jgka waktu yg lama. Soalnya balikin duit segitu dr profit MU ga secepat 1-2 tahun, hahahaha.

[B4YU]

Manchester United put trophies on the table in £500 million bond pitch to investors

Manchester United put their trophies on the table in the City of London on Thursday in the hope that investors would follow suit with their cash.




The European Cup, which United do not presently hold, and the Premier League trophy, which they do, were the star attractions on the first day of presentations to London-based investors that the Glazer family hopes will help fill a £500million bond offer.

The trophies were on stage as United chief executive David Gill led a sales pitch to institutional investors at the headquarters of the Worshipful Company of Grocers', one of the numerous ancient guilds that sit in the shadow of the Bank of England.

It was an appropriate venue given that the club were controlled for 40 years by the Edwards, a family that owed its fortune to meat-packing, before being bought by a Floridian dynasty that has treated it as a cash-machine.

If the silverware provided the glitz the substance of the presentations, and subsequent questions from the floor, focused on the hard realities of the club's finances.

The club confirmed that there is a contingency to raise capital from the sale and lease-back of the Carrington training ground. A similar move with Old Trafford, mentioned as a possible risk in the prospectus, was described as a last resort that is not being countenanced in the short term. As the bond is secured against the stadium such a move would incur a huge cost.

It was also confirmed that supporters would continue to face price-rises at Old Trafford, although the club are likely to introduce new categories of ticket to both justify price hikes and make up for the deepening dip in traditional hospitality revenue. The club are exploring "enhanced" tickets, offering a less lavish form of hospitality to justify a higher price.

Gill has also played down the impact of the possible departure of Sir Alex Ferguson, saying that the club would be insulated from any financial impact for the first year or two after his departure.

Potential investors left clutching complimentary United scarves and mini-footballs.

The Glazers hope they will be back with their wallets.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/manutd/6990770/Manchester-United-put-trophies-on-the-table-in-500-million-bond-pitch-to-investors.html