The Glazers are apparently on the brink of pulling out of the sale of Manchester United although the Americans could give that a second thought after having been forewarned about the consequences of their decision.
Manchester United’s share price plummeted and is set for its worst-ever day, triggered by the news that the Glazers will pull the club off the market hitting a raw nerve with investors. The Premier League giants were put up for sale last November, with Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani and Sir Jim Ratcliffe emerging as the eventual frontrunners to take over. However reports surfaced over the weekend claiming that the Glazers were contemplating pulling out of the sale, which riled up investors considerably.
The trading of United shares on the New York Stock Exchange has been on-going since August 2012 and hit a 12-month zenith in February 2023 at the height of the takeover battle. But the Glazers’ decision to U-turn on the sale looks likely to hit them hard in the coffers.
The NYSE had been closed on Monday for Labor Day and re-opened for the first time since the news of their U-turn broke on Tuesday. United’s share price had closed at a price of $23.66 on Friday evening but plummeted by more than 20 per cent on Tuesday, down to as low as $18.83. Although the share price has recovered to $19.17, that is still a drop of more than 18 per cent on Friday’s closing price. The drop represents the biggest sell-off of shares in United since the club was floated on the NYSE 11 years ago. The previous record drop was on 12 March 2020, at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, a fall of 13.8 per cent.
Suffice it to say that – with the market cap currently set at £3billion – the fall in share price has wiped as much as £550million off the price of the club in one fell swoop and that is half what the Glazers are seeking in return for a sale. Ratcliffe and Sheikh Jassim’s respective bids had both reached the £5bn mark, with the duo still largely interested in buying the Manchester club. But those hopes were heavily dented on Saturday night, when the Daily Mail reported the Glazers are set to take the club off the market.
It is now suggested they are instead set to put the club back up for sale in 2025, when they believe they can increase their asking price. The suggestion that the Glazers could take the club off the market have been doubted by some, including club legend Gary Neville, a long-time critic.
“I just can’t believe that the report is true. It’s part of the game playing and the manipulating of stories that they have been doing for a long time. I don’t see anyway that they can keep hold of the club because they’ve got no money,” he told Sky Sports.