Shares are declining as rumors that the club won’t be sold spread, yet fans are unaware of the Glazers’ strategy for Man United.
Those who owned Manchester United shares had a miserable day. The company has experienced a lot over the past few weeks, but the rise and fall in the share price on the New York Stock Exchange over the past few months has been totally driven by what investors anticipate would happen with the takeover.
A increase in the share price on several days has indicated that a sale is about to go through, most notably the day that Companies House registered Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani’s Nine Two Foundation as a UK business.
However, the sight of the stock falling in value on Tuesday will fuel worries among a disgruntled fanbase that the Glazers are now firmly leaning towards staying after 10 months of deadlines being missed, stretched, and imagined, of briefing and counterbriefing but little progress.
The club’s valuation decreased by more than £500 million, with shares falling 21% at one point before completing Tuesday’s trading down 18.2%. It was the biggest decline in stock price since the company went public 11 years ago, and the market’s trepidation is not due to Erik ten Hag’s team’s recent losses, Jadon Sancho’s criticism of his manager, or the negative publicity the club received as a result of the Mason Greenwood and Antony cases. It’s because, nearly 300 days after the club was listed for sale, business owners worry that the for sale signs may be removed without a deal being reached.
Sancho already had a significant United problem thanks to Garnacho.
It would be a terrible blow for United supporters who believed the Glazers’ 18-year ownership tenure was about to come to an end. When the previous home game concluded, 7,000 fans remained to protest against the American family, and if they announce publicly that they have decided not to sell, those protests will become much more intense. The club is prepared for blowback, according to club sources, if the strategic review just proposes new investment rather than a sale.
Supporters, who get hopeful when shares rise and now dread the worst after months of inaction, are actually forced to rely on speculation. Progress has been agonizingly slow ever since Sheikh Jassim and Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s frenzy of bids came to an end.
We shouldn’t have had high expectations for the Glazers. Joel and Avram are adamant about staying, while Bryan, Darcie, Kevin, and Edward are split on their course of action. It prevents a standard sale procedure.
Financial sources in the US have also questioned why the NYSE didn’t intervene sooner to put pressure on the Glazers. Some have expressed concern about how share values have changed based only on rumors. It hasn’t helped that we haven’t communicated.
The issue here is communication, though. Although there will be non-disclosure agreements in place with potential buyers and obviously not much can be revealed, it wouldn’t be difficult for the Glazers to reveal their intentions. Instead, until Tuesday, they had done nothing but sit back and watch the shares rise. You get the impression it’s all just a game to them.
