August 11, 2012
By Richard Jolly
Manchester United chief executive David Gill insists the club’s IPO will not affect their ability to spend in the transfer market and again denied that the Glazers’ ownership has damaged the Red Devils prospects on the pitch.
United floated on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday, when 10% of the club’s shares were sold, giving them a market value of $2.3 billion – $1 billion below the figure the Glazers hoped to achieve.
But Gill said: “We fully understand and the owners fully understand that what happens on the pitch is crucial to us and we will make sure there are sufficient funds to invest in the team going forward.”
Sir Alex Ferguson is trying to buy Arsenal captain Robin van Persie to join his other summer signings Shinji Kagawa and Nick Powell at Old Trafford, with chief operating officer Michael Bolingbroke revealing last week that the club had budgeted for a net spend of £40 million in this transfer window.
And Gill pointed to United’s record in the Glazers’ seven-year reign as he defended the owners and said revenue will increase in the future.
“We’ve won four Premier Leagues, we’ve been to the Champions League final three times, we’ve had on-going success on the pitch,” he said.
“We’re comfortable with the leverage we’ve had and we believe that given the growth opportunity we’ve got ahead of us – for example we’ve signed Chevrolet to a seven-year shirt sponsorship commencing in 2014, which is over twice what our current shirt sponsors make – we’ve got a lot of interesting and good opportunities to improve our cash flow going forward.”
