Manchester United has picked the New York Stock Exchange to make its stock market debut and ended months of speculation over where the world's best-supported soccer club would list.
The US-owned club filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday to raise up to $100 million (€79 million) in an initial public offering of its Class A ordinary shares in New York.In the United States, the amount of money a company says it plans to raise in its first IPO filings is used to calculate registration fees.
The final size of the IPO could be different. Thomson Reuters publication IFR reported last month that the club had dropped its plans for an Asian listing in favour of a US listing.
After first eyeing a Hong Kong IPO, the former English Premier League champions had planned a $1 billion listing in Singapore in the second half of last year before putting plans on hold because of market turmoil.
The club's American proprietors, the Glazer family, are well known in the United States as owners of American football team the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
However, they have faced opposition from United fans after taking over the club in 2005 in a leveraged buyout that left it saddled with hefty debt repayments.The club's total debt as on March 31st was £423.3 million (€526 million), according to the filing.
It intends to use the net proceeds from this offering to repay debt.
Reuters
