Manchester United’s share price gets a kicking in run up to results
Manchester United’s embarrassing start to the football season appears to be weighing heavily on the club’s stock, with shares in New York tumbling by a further 4.5 per cent yesterday.
The drop reflects an increasingly bearish sentiment among investors towards the club, which publishes its latest set of results tomorrow.
Shares reached a peak of $19.63 in July, two months after Dutch maverick Louis van Gaal was appointed as the team’s new manager.
Yet the Red Devils’ fortunes have suffered since then, with Van Gaal’s men failing to win any of their opening four fixtures – despite the new boss spending over £150m in transfer fees in a bid to bolster his squad.
The shares closed at $15.60 last night – having lost over one fifth of their value since the July peak.
United’s Glazer family owners will be hoping for the shares to get a boost from another lift in commercial revenue, if the fourth quarter results reveal ongoing success off the pitch.
The club’s updates have become synonymous with impressive growth in commercial income, which could total more than £200m during the latest fiscal year.
As of 31 March, the club had made £145m from commercial streams during the previous nine months. Total revenue was predicted to come in at £420m to £430m for the whole of 2013-14, a far larger turnover than most of United’s Premier League rivals enjoy.