Kieran Maguire: Man United lose over £300m as Sir Jim Ratcliffe details emerges
The Man United share price has tumbled over £300million because of reports that Sir Jim Ratcliffe is the Glazer’s preferred bidder.
That is the opinion of finance expert Kieran Maguire, who spoke exclusively to Football Insider about the volatile nature of United’s stock value during the takeover process.
As reported by Sportico, United’s stock dropped 9.5 per cent in one day after reports emerged that the Glazers preferred Ratcliffe’s INEOS bid to the Qatari takeover bid.
The enterprise value of United including net debt is $3.9bn, so a near 10 per cent drop in stock value loses the club around $390million [£314million] in value.
Ratcliffe’s takeover bid is only for the Glazer’s 69 per cent share in the club, whereas the Qatar bid from Sheikh Jassim is for 100 per cent of the club’s shares.
Maguire believes that the investors ‘hopeful’ of a full takeover would have sold shares after hearing that Ratcliffe is the preferred bidder.
“The stock market is now down a third since rumours started about Sir Jim Ratcliffe being the preferred bidder,” Maguire told Football Insider.
“It was around $27 but is now down to around $18, so it has lost a third of its value and the reason behind that is the price was being propped up by investors hopeful of a total 100 per cent takeover by the Qatari bidders.
“If there was a 100 per cent takeover – like Sheikh Jassim is pursuing – then the stock price will likely soar to around $32.
“The Ratcliffe bid will only acquire the shares owned by the Glazers and that would see all the speculative buyers leave the stock market, which is why the price plummets.“
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