Manchester United owners the Glazer family will have to decide whether to lower their eye-watering £6bn asking price to sell the club as bidders circle Old Trafford ahead of Friday’s “soft deadline” for offers.
Boyhood Red Devils fan Sir Jim Ratcliffe, a wealthy Qatari consortium and several US investment groups are among those who expressed interest and pored over the clubs books ahead of the first deadline for bids.
The Glazer family are looking to attract offers of around £6bn for the club, but sources close to the process believe there’s little chance of an offer at that level at this stage. This will force them to either re-evaluate their asking price and negotiate with potential bidders, or walk away from the process.
Ratcliffe and his Ineos group are the only publicly declared bidder so far, but indications are that his initial offer will be closer to the £4.25bn offer tabled for Chelsea last year.
Much of the speculation has surrounded likely Qatari interest and i understands that there is interest from the Gulf nation, but the funding and exact structure of any bid – if, as widely reported, it arrives in the next 24 hours – is still far from clear.
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A source with knowledge of the intentions of Qatari Investment Authority, Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, said that a direct bid from QIA was unlikely. Instead, there’s a feeling in the Gulf that some of the figures from QIA and Qatar Sports Investments, the QIA subsidiary which owns Paris Saint Germain, could combine to form a separate entity which would then take the bid forward.
“If Qatar get involved, it has the potential to transform Manchester United,” the source said.
Friday’s so-called soft deadline will require bidders to send a paragraph with a bid amount and proof of funds. That will give the handlers of the sale – Raine Group – a more concrete idea of interest and the likely price the club will command. Offers won’t be considered “final” at this stage, with room left for negotiation.
A figure with knowledge of the process described it as “chaotic” and stressed that despite the speculation surrounding Qatar, there was still plenty of road left to travel before a full takeover proceeds.
“A healthy dose of scepticism is always advised. There is an element of smoke and mirrors about the process and it’s in the interests of Raine and the Glazers to encourage a bidding war,” they said.
For all the talk about Qatar, it is the Glazers who hold all the cards and they want to extract a premium price for the club. Reports that Spurs will be the subject of a £3.75bn bid from MSP Sports came at a good time for the family, who will feel that justifies their price tag.
But football finance expert Kieran Maguire told i that the need to renovate Old Trafford – which is in stark contrast to Tottenham’s gleaming new stadium – contradicts that belief.
“£5bn or £6bn was never justified on any sort of valuation fundamentals,” he said.
“I think they were looking for a testosterone price, trying to create an auction – which is what happened with Chelsea. Todd Boehly overpaid for them and I suspect the people interested in Manchester United know that and don’t want to make the same mistake.”
He thinks that the Glazers would be foolish to ignore a bid in excess of £4bn – especially given fan sentiment around them.
“If I was the Glazers I would snap their hands off for £4bn,” he said.
“It has cost them next to nothing. If they carry on as owners there’s that awkward question of what they’re going to do with the ground because we know they won’t put in their own money. It would require taking out further significant debt on a club that already has £600m of debt – the fans will be up in arms even further.”
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