Manchester United Club as A Publicly Traded Company: What You Need to Know

ABOUT

Manchester United Football Club is a professional soccer club and a member of the Premier League based in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England. The club is nicknamed “the Red Devils”. The soccer club was originally founded in 1878 as the Newton Heath LYR Football Club, but was later changed to Manchester United in 1902, and moved to its current location, Old Trafford in 1910.

Manchester United is one of the most successful clubs in the Premier League and the rest of Europe, in terms of trophies won. The club won their first trophy in 1886 as Newton Heath LYR club, and won their first league title in 1908 as ‘Manchester United.’ They won the FA Cup for the first time in 1909, and have since scaled up the ladder of big wins and successful football seasons.

Manchester United Full Squad

Ticket Sales

Match tickets for all Manchester United games are exclusively sold to Official Members, the same applies to other soccer clubs in the Premier League. Already registered members can check for availability of ticket sales here: manutd.com/tickets. Official member can also register their interest for notifications in case their preferred games are not available. Due to COVID-19 safety measures in place, sales of match tickets have been on hold.

If you are not yet an Official Member and would like to become one, you can visit manutd.com/membership.

Manchester United Plc.

“We are an “emerging growth” company under the US federal securities laws and will be subject to reduced public company reporting requirements. Investing in our Class A ordinary shares involves a high degree risk.” (Manchester United Plc: Prospectus)

Stock Price: $15.14

Manchester United Plc. (NYSE: MANU) is an England-based professional football club, that manages a soccer team as its first priority and has other affiliated businesses and activities that generates more revenue for the club. Affiliated activities of Man-U includes a media network, team merchandise, news and sports features, fan zone, and a foundation.

Manchester United became publicly listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in 2012 under the ticker “MANU’. Unlike other business organizations that are publicly listed on the stock exchange, Manchester united mostly generates its revenue from its soccer club. Therefore, Man-U’s stock performance is highly dependent on the players’ performance on the field. If you would like to invest in Manchester United’s stock, keeping a track of the soccer club’s performance will be in your best interest.

Manchester United EV

Forbes measures a team’s value base on its “economic performance from matchday, broadcasting, commercial sources, as well as any additional value generated by its market position or potential.” According to accounting firm KPMG, a team’s enterprise value is “taken from its profitability, popularity, sporting potential, as well as the value of broadcasting rights and revenue opportunity stemming from the stadium ownership.” The two methodologies tend to base a team’s enterprise value on its assets and revenue streams.

Basically, the soccer club makes money by winning. More wins attract more fans, and more fans lead to more revenues from ticket sales, branding and media. All of these boost earnings and increases the EV. On the other hand, if Manchester United stops winning, or goes on a break like the last four months due to the coronavirus pandemic, the club’s revenues will surely decrease, resulting in lower EV.

As of November 2019, Manchester United’s enterprise value was projected around $2.6 billion, including the value of Old Trafford stadium, valuable players like Rashford and Pogba, the media and sponsorship deals, and debt. This figure is based on analysts’ estimates and may differ by analysts.

The future of Manchester United stock is tied to the number of games they will win in each season. As an investor looking to invest in soccer clubs, this and many more are things to consider before putting your money on the line.

How to buy Man-U Shares

• Open a share trading account with any trusted brokerage

• Fund your trading account

• Search for Manchester United on your share trading platform under the ticker ‘MANU’

• Select the amount you would like to invest

• Invest

Buying Man-U shares is similar to buying and selling shares of other companies as well, and the same investing principles, techniques, or strategies that apply to other stocks can be applied to Man-U stock as well.

Other publicly-listed clubs

Manchester isn’t the only soccer club that is listed on the stock exchange. Others include Arsenal, AS Roma, Borussia Dortmund, Celtic, Juventus, Rangers, amongst others.