14 Aug 2022 22:03:50
I was talking with a United fan and good friend of mine today. He is a regular attendee at Old Trafford. Their assessment was this. Forget for a minuet what issues there is at the club now, which are numerous and worrying, its what is needed to put it right that is even more scary.
If United get someone to buy the club they will have to pay what ever the cost is. Say 1.5 billion. Then there is the 560 million in debt that would need addressing. The hundreds of millions to renovate the stadium and training facilities. Then the 500 million needed over 4 transfer windows to put the squad in somethig like fighting shape. So they would need to sink 3-4 billion in to the club just to put it right, let alone get it ahead.
So you either have the same situation there is now where the new owner has to borrow and potentially levey more debt against the club, or go and get an oil daddy who will simply write cheque after cheque. Something United fans have derided the noisy neighbours for for a decade. This situation is such a difficult one to fix, it may be the solution is as unpalatable to some as the problem. Oil classico in 2023?
14 Aug 2022 22:44:36
Generally the bid for something like this would include Paying off the outstanding debt. The old debt gets paid to the creditors who would have to be paid before a transfer of ownership happens.
If someone was to be offered the opportunity to buy it, They would be borrowing as much as they can.
I can assure you the guy who bought chelsea did not just write a check for all of it. They are very leveraged i would assume.
14 Aug 2022 23:27:26
1.5bn the leeches will want to make a killing i'd say the minimum they'll want is 3bn.
14 Aug 2022 23:29:10
One and a half billion to buy the club! Not the remotest chance in hell, double that and it still will not be enough.
15 Aug 2022 01:00:00
All fans deride the bankrolled clubs until its their team at which point they are over the moon about it.
15 Aug 2022 01:15:59
You'd be looking at £5 billion to buy United now as they don't actually want to sell. The debt would come out of whatever price the Glazers sell for.
There are a multitude of ways to fund the stadium partially at least.
In terms of the money needed to fund the squad, this would always be done over the course of a few years and the club does make a lot of money.
I think we've been so bad in the transfer market for so long that we've forgotten you can actually make money too. In the last decade alone Chelsea have made £500 million more in transfers than us.
None of this will be fixed instantly with new owners but considering the Glazers took out a loan of £700 million to buy us, we've spent 18 years paying interest payments on that loan to tune of £1.3 billion and the debt has only reduced to £560 million is the biggest robbery in football history.
A competent owner invested in United's best interests could turn this sinking ship around. We don't need oil money. If Chelsea has shown us it's that when a club is up for sale, there will be consortium's out there willing to get involved.
15 Aug 2022 06:09:37
Mumbles
Thats the playbook for PE. You pay the interest and push out the principle through refis through organising cheaper debt. On paper you get valuation uplifts and the thing that kills your valuation is injection of additional equity unless you get massive returns on that new equity.
They look at the club as an investment, doubt they care or love football.
As far what its worth that's not that difficult to figure out. Have not looked at the financials but will not be 5 bill as someone suggested.
One of the reasons chelsea went for that kind of money is abra gifted the debt if i recall correctly which was something like 1 b or 1.5 bill.
15 Aug 2022 08:44:02
Value is about 3-4 billion…. do you lot seriously think someone takes this from there pockets, consortiums or not, as in 99% of business you fund a business, no one in there right mind takes 3-4 billion out of there respective banks to pay for a purchase of any business for all manner of reasons, lucky your not running a multi million pound business with some business models that you seem to think happens! All laughable you have zero idea.
15 Aug 2022 08:46:13
Surely the Chelsea takeover saga showed that they had a lot of serious interest and would be the same for UTD debt or no debt ? Was it 14 possible suitors initially?
If the Glazers slapped 4 billion price on the club, and we need 500 mill of gound improvements,100 mill on training ground,300 mill on players plus a further 120+ each season for more player recruitment i would be willing to bet there would still be a line of people interested.
15 Aug 2022 10:18:00
The next best thing if glazers don’t want to sell is getting an activist investor like elliot accumulating shares and forcing changes in terms of how the business is run.
15 Aug 2022 10:29:41
About rite, don't know why but I just got a feeling United will be owned by a stupid rich Chinese family in the future. not sure why but i have that feeling.
15 Aug 2022 12:40:13
United valuation per NYSE is shy of £2b now. So that’s the actual value of the company but of course need to pay the £600m debt too. Given Chelsea was bought for £4b and Glazers thought our value would rise to £8B+ IF the ESL ever took off I think £4-4.5b is minimum they’d take. But new owners essentially need £800m+ on new stadia potentially and what £500m to compete with City / Liverpool on players?
That’s why United won’t be sold immediately. Any billionaire wanting us will wait til our overall value plummets as low as possible.