A slide in Manchester United Plc’s shares deepened Monday, leaving the English Premier League club’s stock nearly a quarter below the record high set this month as the bidding war for the iconic football team drags on.
(Bloomberg) — A slide in Manchester United Plc’s shares deepened Monday, leaving the English Premier League club’s stock nearly a quarter below the record high set this month as the bidding war for the iconic football team drags on.
The dive follows a Financial Times column suggesting the club is worth about $1.6 billion, less than half of the enterprise value implied by the share price. That measure is now around $4.4 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The New York-listed shares slumped 9.2% Monday to $20.78, taking losses since their Feb. 16 all-time closing high to about 23%. Growing speculation around a sale by the Glazer family drove the stock higher starting in late 2022, with Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad bin Jaber Al Thani, a member of the Qatari royal family, and Jim Ratcliffe, Britain’s richest man, entering the fray.
Separately, the FT reported over the weekend, citing a person close to the situation, that offers will need to be bigger to buy the team, with bids from Sheikh Jassim and Ratcliffe not high enough for the Glazers.
Bloomberg News has reported that Qatari investors were planning an opening bid of around £5 billion ($6 billion) for Manchester United, which could make it the biggest takeover of a professional sports club on record.
Representatives for the club didn’t immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.
–With assistance from Thyagaraju Adinarayan and Katrina Lewis.
(Updates shares, enterprise value and chart.)
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