Manchester United PLC’s future was thrown up in the air on Thursday after The Sun reported the Glazer family could scrap plans to sell the club.
Potential bidders, including Ineos-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Qatari Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad al-Thani, are still set to meet club officials in the coming days but with offers falling short of the touted £6bn valuation, the report said the Glazers are looking at other options.
One possible course of action being given serious consideration would be using external cash - four US hedge funds are in the market to have a possible role - to create a new company to push the club’s merchandising and digital commercial operation.
The set-up would see the Glazers join forces with one deep-pocketed financier, the Los Angeles-based Ares Management fund which has assets of £246bn, to create the new entity.
This would allow them to rake in money from potential opportunities from digital sales, video gaming and merchandise licensing that would be separate to what happens to the pitch.
Suggestions of a rift between the Glazer brothers or a possible buy-out by co-chairmen Joel and Avram are being strongly denied.
The Sun quoted one senior source as saying: “The family will act as one. It will either be a full sale or an alternative."
The US-based Raine Group, appointed by the Glazers to handle the sale process, is understood to still be looking at a range of options and no final decision has been made.
This could still include the full sale that is the intention of Sheikh Jassim, a banker and member of the Qatari royal family, or the proposed Ineos buy-out of the Glazers’ 69% holding but not the rest of the club share stock.
The two potential bidders will be invited to make a second bid following presentations to them by officials from the Premier League club in the coming days. At that stage, the Raine Group will report back to the Glazers. They are then likely to choose a bidder to enter into an exclusivity period or recommend another course of action.