Man Utd Takeover?!

[red g]

Red knights?

Is this supposed to be serious?


"Getting the money together is the easy bit", yeah right, do **** off please. Just a load of hot air in my opinion.

gathering pace. M.U.S.T was on the radion this morning saying the red knights will be putting all there own money in , just cant see it. Why would Glaziers sell?

[Exiled_red]

gathering pace. M.U.S.T was on the radion this morning saying the red knights will be putting all there own money in , just cant see it. Why would Glaziers sell?

According to what I read in the Metro this morning (sorry I don't have a link) there are about 40 of them, a number of whom are investment bankers and hedgefund managers etc and they are looking to each invest ~£20m each and borrow ~£220m from the banks. But the only way they can get the Glazers to sell is by coming up with an offer that they will find acceptable,

[Vermilion]

Red knights?

Is this supposed to be serious?


"Getting the money together is the easy bit", yeah right, do **** off please. Just a load of hot air in my opinion.

The Red Knights eh, well lets hope it's the Glazers that say 'Ni'.....Ni Ni Ni'.

[Chazza]

Red Knights raise £1.5bn for plan to buy Manchester United from Glazer family

Sixty super-rich investors have pledged up to £1.5 billion in their bid to seize control of Manchester United, The Times can reveal.

Although the Glazer family have insisted that the champions are not for sale, the leaders of the Red Knights, the group of leading City financiers behind the move, will sit at their round table today to sift through a rich list of applicants ready to back a buyout.

“We thought we had 40 investors — well, it is already 60,” one of the Knights said last night.

It may mean that a bid for Britain’s biggest club could soon be a realistic prospect and that the Knights will be in a position to make an offer that cannot be refused.

The strength of the bid will become clear today when Jim O’Neill, head of global economic research at Goldman Sachs and a lifelong United supporter, and his team analyse the offers on the table at the City headquarters of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, the top law firm.

With him will be Mark Rawlinson, a senior partner at Freshfields, and Paul Marshall, the multimillionaire founder of the Marshall Wace hedge fund.

The Red Knights believe that the club is worth about £1 billion, while the Glazers’ valuation — which they insist does not equate to an asking price — is approximately £1.2 billion.

David Gill, the United chief executive, dismissed the Red Knights out of hand this week, describing their takeover plan as unworkable.

But anger at the massive debts run up by the Glazers that has rippled through the Old Trafford stands is now making waves in boardrooms as it appears that leading investors as well as fans, who have been hit by big increases in ticket prices, are rallying behind the Red Knights.

The Manchester United Supporters’ Trust (MUST), which is campaigning to oust the Glazers, said last night that membership was on target for 110,000 — more than doubling in a day since the Red Knights’ plan emerged on Tuesday.

Duncan Drasdo, the chief executive of MUST, said: “The growth rate is absolutely phenomenal. MUST now has more campaign members than the official Manchester United membership scheme.”

There is still a long way to go, though. According to Gill, the Glazers are adamant they will not sell one of the most prized assets in world sport, while O’Neill, who has been given leave by Goldman Sachs to pursue the bid, and his group still have to prove that they have the cash to wrestle control from United’s controversial American owners — though they may be able to do so by the end of Friday.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/spo...cle7050562.ece

[cream]

I wish this happens.

[Roboklopp]

Biggest clubs my arse.

[kingfunk]

Wouldnt it be funny if the glazers made next years manc away kit green and gold?

[destinydude]

Wud be absolutely funny :P

[MrsB]

Wouldnt it be funny if the glazers made next years manc away kit green and gold?

[Exiled_red]

Wouldnt it be funny if the glazers made next years manc away kit green and gold?

[Chazza]

Red Knights close on Utd bid
Sources: No formal offer until end of season

Sky Sports News understands the group considering a bid to take over Manchester United are hopeful the terms of an offer will be finalised this week.

The Red Knights strategy group is meeting on Wednesday to tempt wealthy investors to join them and there remains every expectation that a formal offer will be made at the end of the season.

Sky Sports News' chief news reporter Bryan Swanson understands the Red Knights are more confident that, following the club's recent exit from the UEFA Champions League, the true value of the club has decreased and all major issues facing the club suggest downside risks.

It is believed negotiations with potential investors include the possibility of keeping the ₤500m bond raised by Manchester United supporters.

It is understood the group has not been put off by the Glazer family's insistence that the club are "not for sale" and the group believe a credible bid will be put together.

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,195...medium=twitter

[Exiled_red]

Red Knights close on Utd bid
Sources: No formal offer until end of season

Sky Sports News understands the group considering a bid to take over Manchester United are hopeful the terms of an offer will be finalised this week.

The Red Knights strategy group is meeting on Wednesday to tempt wealthy investors to join them and there remains every expectation that a formal offer will be made at the end of the season.

Sky Sports News' chief news reporter Bryan Swanson understands the Red Knights are more confident that, following the club's recent exit from the UEFA Champions League, the true value of the club has decreased and all major issues facing the club suggest downside risks.

It is believed negotiations with potential investors include the possibility of keeping the ₤500m bond raised by Manchester United supporters.

It is understood the group has not been put off by the Glazer family's insistence that the club are "not for sale" and the group believe a credible bid will be put together.

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,195...medium=twitter

I find this bit quite odd, surely the only way the Glazers will sell is if someone offers at least what they value the club at currently, if they genuinely aren't looking to sell, surely it will take a massive offer to convince them.

[Leyton388]

They will not sell.

[Vermilion]

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/gill-hits-back-at-green-and-gold-1984930.html

Gill hits back at Green and GoldExclusive:

In the first of a two-part interview, Manchester United chief executive belittles fans' group, defends Glazer business plan and dismisses Red Knights


By Sam Wallace, Football Correspondent

Friday, 28 May 2010

The Manchester United chief executive, David Gill, has described the United fans driving the "green and gold" protest against the Glazer family ownership as "a minority" and suggested that many people who wear the scarves do not even understand the nature of the protest they symbolise.

In a wide-ranging interview with The Independent, Gill also said that he was confident that the heavily-criticised Glazer ownership with its debts of £716m – around £500m of which are directly loaded onto the club – could be sustained by United's profitability. He dismissed the putative Red Knights takeover as unworkable.

Speaking in detail about the club for the first time since the bond issue in January that refinanced £504m of the Glazer debt, Gill said that the American owners had never denied manager Sir Alex Ferguson the money to buy a player. The club will disclose today in their quarterly accounts that they have around £95m in their cash reserves which they say will be at Ferguson's disposal in the summer.


Gill's comments are sure to re-ignite the debate with the supporters' groups who in protest against the Glazers have adopted the green and gold colours of Newton Heath, the 19th-century team which became United. They have been personally critical of Gill who has been at the club since 1997 and, as the chief executive in the previous plc regime, initially resisted the Glazer takeover. Gill said: "The green and gold campaign and the momentum behind that can get a bit tiring. We understand people's desire to protest and I think it is a minority. It's a visible minority in the stadium [and also] if you look at our fans around the world where we have many.

"Would we prefer not to have them [green and gold scarves]? Yes. Would we prefer to have the stands full of red and white? Of course we would. Are the [anti-Glazer] chants every game unfortunate? Yes, they are unfortunate. They have a right to protest. A lot of the fans clearly care about the club and that is a strength.

"But a lot of the other fans want to know that the team is playing attractive football, exciting Manchester United-style football, winning football. They want to come to a safe stadium with modern amenities and enjoy it. Who owns it is a bit irrelevant to them."

The green and gold protest was launched largely in response to the document that accompanied United's bond issue in January which, among other things, disclosed that the Glazers had the provision to pay themselves up to £9m a year in fees from the club as well as servicing a debt that costs around £45m in interest payments a year.

Gill said: "I think that [the green and gold] minority will go away. I see people from Asia walking out of the [Old Trafford] megastore with a red and white scarf on and they just assume they [green and gold] are official scarves and go and buy one. I think there is an element of that. A lot of people understand what it means but a lot of them don't.

"They [fans protesting] are not going to change their opinion even if we win three Champions League titles in a row. We couldn't have been much more successful in the last three years: we won the league [2007-2009], we were Champions League winners and runners-up and we won the Carling Cup. But they are never going to be happy.

"I firmly believe that the financing we have in place and the growth we have seen in our commercial operations, even with the [annual] interest of £45m, we can sustain that and still be a top, top club. We can invest in the players, invest in the training ground – we have plans for that – invest in the stadium and do those things.

"I understand people's concerns but that has always been the case. There have always been people who have not been happy. Very few football clubs are happy with their owners. Chelsea are happy with Roman Abramovich, Manchester City with [Sheikh] Mansour but very few football clubs are happy because the fans always want the best players, low ticket pricing, this, that and the other. What we have is effectively the same business model – it has changed with the debt – since 1991 when we floated on the stock exchange. We live within our means."

The heavily-trailed bid by the Red Knights, a group led by the former United director Jim O'Neill, to bring together a group of 50 wealthy individuals each paying up to £15m looks doomed to failure as it has becomes clear that their Glazers are not prepared to sell for anything like the proposed £1bn offer. Gill agreed that the name adopted by the group was presumptuous.

"It [the Red Knights plan] is not an easy model when you get all those people to sign up," he said. "There are different levels of investment. To then say, 'we are going to involve the fans'? It is not easy. I have experienced running a football club and I do firmly believe that short, sharp decision-making is what is needed. Whether you are buying a player or whatever, you need to get on and do it.

"Also the people involved [with the Red Knights] clearly have an ego about them and when people have that sort of money they want to be involved in decision-making. They are not going to do it just for seats in the boardroom and they are going to want to protect their investment. That's quite an interesting challenge."

[Bender]

A consortium of businessmen tipped as possible buyers of Manchester United will shelve plans to make an offer, a report says.

The Red Knights were expected to make a bid of about £1bn in the coming weeks.

But the Sunday Times said this had been put on ice after investors baulked at the club's valuation.

Manchester United has said it is not for sale and that the Glazer family owners would "not entertain any offers".

The Glazers are said to value the club at £1.5bn.

The paper cited sources close to the Red Knights saying that the club's debts, the lack of money spent on players in recent years and rumours of manager Sir Alex Ferguson being close to retirement meant there was "a lot more downside than upside".

Revenues increased
On Friday the club announced a cut in debt from £543.3m a year ago to £520.9m for the January to March period.

In Man Utd's quarterly financial results, the figures also showed net assets of £794.9m and a cash balance of £95.9m.

The Old Trafford club said that in the nine months to March, year-on-year revenues were up 13.5% from £193.3m to £219.3m.

It also reported that quarterly match-day, commercial and media revenues had increased on three months ago.

However, losses for the quarter were up from £5.87m to £65.94m, mostly relating to various financing charges and costs.

Debts
Manchester United was bought by the Glazer family for £800m in 2005. In the 2009/10 season the club finished second to Chelsea in the Premier League.

They were also knocked out of the Champions League in the quarter finals, and have ended the season relatively unsuccessfully by their standards, winning only the League Cup.

Critics say the family has saddled United with massive debts, and the Red Knights have said that one of their priorities is to reduce debt levels.

Earlier this year the club launched a seven-year £538m bond that enabled them to refinance much of their more costly debt.

Fans have launched a campaign to oust the Glazers, many boycotting the traditional red shirts and scarves and instead wearing green and gold, the original colours of Newton Heath, the amateur side which was founded in 1878 and became Manchester United.

However, the club does not believe it has fully maximised its revenue streams from global commercial opportunities.
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