Baron Capital has acquired a quarter of all Manchester United shares available on the New York Stock Exchange.
The American investment firm has been buying up stock and now owns 24 per cent of all the United shares that were sold by the Glazer family in 2012, though that still only represents 2.5 per cent of the club.
The Glazer family only released 10 per cent of the club on to the stock market – they still retain 90 per cent and control the vast majority of votes. It is not considered a move to gain a controlling stake in the team.
Nevertheless, Baron Capital’s actions explain why the share price has been slowly rising despite the club’s struggles on the pitch.
This has also been fuelled by expectation of an announcement of a new Nike kit deal worth hundreds of millions of pounds.
Baron Capital’s United shareholding was confirmed in a securities and exchange commission filing on the Manchester United investor relations website. It says Baron Capital now owns 9,581,636 shares, which were worth £90m at the close of the market on Monday.
“Shares of Manchester United dropped… due to a delay in the signing of a new global merchandise deal with Nike and the team’s poor performance on the field,” Baron Capital said on its website.
“The Nike deal is still expected to be signed, but has been pushed out from this fiscal year. We remain positive on the company’s prospects going forward.”
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