Soros fund takes stake in Manchester United
A FUND controlled by billionaire investor George Soros has bought 3.1 million shares in Manchester United’s recently-floated New York stock.
The shares, which have slipped back since debuting on Wall Street at $14 on August 10, will not give the Soros funds any say in the running of the club, and are unlikey to pay any dividends.
Manchester United and its owners, the Glazer family floated 16.7 million shares, 10% of the club’s stock, in New York, raising $233m.
About half of the proceeds will be used to pay down debt incurred by the Glazers when they bought the club in the leveraged buyout deal in 2005. The remainder of the money will go to the Florida-based Glazers.
Manchester United’s shares on Monday closed down 2.7% at $13.06, after hitting a fresh low of $12.91 earlier in the day.
The share purchase, which equates to a 1.9% stake in the business, was disclosed in a filing made to the Securities and Exchange Commission by Soros Fund Management LLC, which is based in Delaware.
George Soros is one of the closely watched investors in the $2 trillion hedge fund industry, and oversees about $25bn in assets. The veteran investor rose to fame and fortune two decades ago when he successfully bet on the devaluation of the pound and made $1bn in the process.
