‘Slippery benchmark’ - Man Utd owners slammed amid takeover decision

Manchester United owners, the Glazers, have been sent a warning over their demands over selling the club. The Glazers confirmed last week that they are seeking investment options, which could open the possibility of the club being sold, something many United fans have been calling for across many years.

Many feel the Glazers have not done enough to keep United at the top of world football, while Old Trafford and other facilities have been allowed to slip, something Cristiano Ronaldo highlighted in his controversial interview recently.

The question now is; who can afford to buy United? While a complete sale is not the requirement at this stage, it is still the most likely option, as long as the Glazers can find someone with enough cash to meet their demands. Those demands are said to involve a £6billion figure, and that’s despite United being valued at less than £4billion by Forbes.

Amid reports of those demands, Michael Moritz, who wrote a book with Sir Alex Ferguson in 2015, has claimed the expectations of the Glazers are out of line with market reality.

Moritz wrote for The Times: “What would you pay for a £583million business with few growth prospects and £81m of EBITDA, the slippery benchmark used by buyout firms to value prospective investments?

“In most industries it would be between 10 and 15 times or, in this case, £800m to £1.2bn. If, however, you are putting a football team on the block and you are a group of absentee owners, as is the case with Manchester United and its dividend-rich Glazer siblings, you would encourage rumours that the business is worth £6bn.”

United do, of course, have a big upside, but this is far from a risk-free investment, given the level of investment needed to improve facilities and the distance the club currently has to return to the point where they are consistently competing for titles, especially given the backing the likes of Chelsea, Manchester City and Newcastle currently have.