City financiers investigate takeover of Man Utd..(source nihttp://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=749415&cc=3888)
A group of well-connected Manchester United supporters have played the first hand of their attempts to wrest control of the club from the unpopular Glazer family's regime. The American owners have been moved to issue an instant rebuttal by again declaring they have no interest in selling the club.
Manchester United fans have launched a green-and-gold protest
Reports from Sky News and the Times suggest talks have been held on London's Fleet Street between a group of leading City of London figures, the so-called "Red Knights". Keith Harris, of Seymour Pierce, football takeover experts, has joined with Jim O'Neill, chief economist at Goldman Sachs.
Both Harris and O'Neill have expressed dissent against the American family's financial model, which has seen a club that was debt-free and profitable in 2005, the year of the Glazer takeover, plummet to debts of around £700 million and the need to sell Cristiano Ronaldo for £81 million in the summer of 2009 to turn an operating profit ahead of a £500 million bond scheme launched in January.
The talks are reported to have taken place at the offices of Mark Rawlinson, a partner in Freshfields' corporate practice, who advised United on its takeover by the Glazers in 2005 with Finsbury, a leading PR firm, also linked with the group.
Sunday's Carling Cup final saw fans adorned in the green and gold colours of Newton Heath, United's precursor club, adopted by the anti-Glazer fans' groups and many banners denouncing the club's owners and chief executive David Gill were also on show at Wembley.
Harris last week called for fans to boycott the club by refusing to buy season tickets for the 2010-11 season, which could cause United's owners to sweat on their finely balanced business plan. The Glazer family have been moved by the rumours to issue a terse "not for sale" response to the speculation. Harris, and others, believe the Florida-based family would sell at the right price - believed to be around the £1 billion mark when the original 2005 price was £790 million - or if their plans began to be disrupted by a lack of cash flow.
The Glazers, meanwhile, despite steepling repayments on their business loans, have bought themselves a degree of security through the bond scheme and any takeover would seem to be a long way off being in any imminent. Members of the family were at Wembley to watch United overcome Aston Villa.