HAPPENING LIVE Man United takeover ‘formal announcement’ claim emerges as Glazer family decision impacts valuation
According to a finance expert, the Glazer family have dramatically increased their asking price as the Manchester United owners consider their future.
The Premier League giants have been up for sale since last November. It’s been made clear over the course of this process that Qatar’s Sheikh Jassim and Sir Jim Ratcliffe are the leading candidates to oust the Glazer family.
Sheikh Jassim is only interested in a full takeover while Ratcliffe is willing to keep the Glazer family on board with a reduced stake of around 20%.
Last November, the Glazer family announced that they would be “evaluating all options” but it remains to be seen whether they will sanction a full takeover.
Conflicting reports have emerged in relation to the takeover process in recent weeks. It was claimed over the weekend that the Glazer family are planning to take Man Utd ‘off the market’, but it has since been suggested that ‘talks are continuing’ between club chiefs and the interested parties.
It has previously been indicated that the Glazer family want £6bn to sell the club but finance expert Kieran Maguire has now explained that Man Utd’s current owners feel that the club is “potentially worth somewhere in the region of £10bn”.
He is also of the belief that the Glazer family are “quite happy” to wait until their asking price is met and “it’ll be interesting to see whether there’s a formal announcement” from those in charge of the takeover process.
“I don’t think the Glazers were trying to avoid a sale of the club,” Maguire told Football Insider.
“When Chelsea were sold for £2.5 billion in May 2022, it did effectively re-jig the valuation of all football clubs.
“But I think the Glazers have seen the significant values being ascribed to different elements of Barcelona, where the club has used what they refer to as economic levers, which seem to have the characteristics of payday loans.
“The Glazers have added those up and in their heads, the club is now potentially worth somewhere in the region of £10billion.
“If the market does not agree with that, then the Glazers are quite happy to sit.
“They’ve taken significant sums out of the club in the form of both dividends and share sales so they’re certainly not in need of cash.
“They still believe that football is vastly undervalued by the markets and they can extract further value.
“So it’ll be interesting to see whether there’s a formal announcement from the Raine Group or from the club itself with regards to a prospective sale.“
