Skip to main content

How much is Manchester United worth?

The authoritative Swiss Ramble provides a thorough answer to this question, but at the end of the day, like a house, it is a question of how much a buyer is prepared to pay: https://swissramble.substack.com/p/how-much-is-manchester-united-worth

There are many reasons why investors would be interested in United. There is a scarcity value, as there are very few elite football clubs in the world, and some are effectively unavailable, e.g. member owned Barcelona and Real Madrid.

The club’s own statistic that it has 1.1bln followers globally can be taken with a pinch of salt, but there is no doubt that United are one of the best supported clubs in the world with a very loyal fanbase.

In marketing terms, they have a very strong brand that some will think they can better monitise and therefore deliver higher commercial revenue.

There will be very few opportunities for investors to buy an elite club like Manchester United, who play in the best league in the world’s most popular sport, so there will be no shortage of potential buyers for this trophy asset.

The level of competition among interested parties can drive up the price, even beyond a sensible valuation, especially as there are other non-financial factors that will influence people’s behaviour.

Although the reported £6-7bln price sought by the Glazers may seem a very optimistic target based on the financials, it only takes one buyer.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

It's no deal say Spurs insiders over Taiwanese takeover

Senior figures at Tottenham Hotspur insisted on Friday that they had not been informed of any deal to sell Daniel Levy’s stake in the club. A business group, Eight Sports Capital — which is said to include a billionaire Taiwanese financier — claimed that it had an agreement in place to buy a 24.99 per cent stake in ENIC, the club’s majority owners, from Levy, who owns 29.88 per cent. The Times has been told Ng Wing Fai and Brooklyn Earick form part of the group, having both been linked previously to potential takeovers of the Premier League club. The Taiwanese businessman, Richard Tsai, is also said to be part of the consortium. He is reportedly worth £7 billion.  Last year Earick, the former DJ and tech entrepreneur, was part of an attempted £4.5 billion takeover, which was “unequivocally rejected” by Spurs.  An ENIC spokesperson said: “We can confirm that neither ENIC nor THFC are aware of any sale by Daniel Levy’s Family Trust of its minority stake in ENIC, THFC’...

Reports about Charlton sale exaggerated

Reports have appeared in The Guardian and elsewhere that Charlton has been put up for sale. Richard Cawley is an authoritative local journalist who runs a South London Sport substack site.  He reached out to the club yesterday evening to ask for comment on The Guardian’s article. Early indications from the club have been that nothing has changed since the story about them seeking investment, except that it is now a different company doing it. Charlton have since managed to consolidate their place in the Championship, avoiding an instant return to League One, with their women’s side promoted to the WSL, returning to the top flight for the first time since 2007, although staying there is likely to be costly. It would be counter-intuitive for owners Global Football Partners not to progress the club when looking for investment, that the focus remains on driving it forward, that their spend this summer is in line with long-term planning and will see an increase in wages spent on players...

Levy's anomalous status at Spurs

It is now nearly a year since Daniel Levy was dismissed as Tottenham Hotspur chairman by the Lewis family.  It has been 12 months of dramatic twists and turns, with Spurs avoiding relegation on the final day of the Premier League season, and then spending unprecedented sums this summer to try to make sure such a scare never happens again. But while most fans focus on the football — and a dubbing by Brentford   — another set of issues have been bubbling away separately. These relate to Levy’s continued position as a minority shareholder in the club. This has been in the news for much of this summer, even as we approach the first anniversary of Levy’s dismissal, and specifically this month, after he missed the opportunity last week to participate in the Lewis family’s latest equity injection into the club. On Thursday morning the club confirmed that his shareholding has been diluted, down by roughly two per cent, after the creation of new ENIC shares. Levy’s dism...