A lot of people saying they had no intention to sell the whole club etc., but that just fails to understand the situation. The Glazers were always going to do what’s best for them, and only them. Jassim wanted to buy 100% of the club for about 5.2 or 5.3bn. The Glazers own 69% of that (forget voting rights for a second). That offer valued the Glazer’s shares at about 33 each. The fact the offer had another 1.5bn for infrastructure etc., was of immense interest to fans but none to the Glazers, who are looking at the share price offer.
Jim has put in an offer that values their shares at 45 each. That’s a massive premium over Jassim. He’s paid that premium to assume sporting control, and will have an agreement in place to buy remaining Glazer shares at a pre-agreed price, or price window, a condition which is probably time barred and also perhaps influenced by overall financial performance.
The Glazers didn’t sell all their shares yet, but with Jim’s offer they’ve established a club value of around 6bn, which is considermore than the 5.2bn Jassim was offering. They’ll now eventually sell up at a price probably between 35-45 per share, I don’t think it’ll be as high as the initial stake because you can’t sell sporting control twice, but it’ll still be higher than the 33 per share Jassim was offering.
And that’s what it all comes down to. How much they get per share. Jassim was miles off Jim’s offer, and all the other stuff like infrastructure investment etc., was completely irrelevant to them. They give zero fecks about the club when they own it. Laughable to think they would care one jot about what happens to it after they sell.
If Jassim wanted it, he was always going to have to pay 6-6.5bn. This was said right at the beginning and it remained the case to the end when they secured a partial sale at the valuation they always stated they wanted.
Jassim was banking on them needing to sell, fan pressure, the lure of investment etc; but he was a billion short of the price. He evidently thought the price would go down, but clearly underestimated how stubborn and patient these leeches are. I am actually quite surprised at the naivety of the Qatari approach.
At the end of the day, this is the first step towards getting the Glazers out. But it’s going to take another 3-7 years to accomplish I reckon. No surprised there. They’ll drain every penny possible. But I’m quietly relieved it’s not Qatar. Whatever anyone says Jassim was just a front for Qatari state. And that’s not who should own United.
We now have 25% owners who will manage the sporting side, who actually care about the club and will provide it with so much more direction than the vacuum the Glazer’s left. Let’s see what happens over the next few years. More questions than answers at this point; but we are better off than we were yesterday, when we were fully under the Glazers.
