Football fans—or soccer fans, depending on where you live—have been watching the potential sale of Manchester United (NYSE:MANU) closely. There’s a February 17 deadline for a potential sale. Right now, investors seem happy with how the whole thing’s going. Manchester United was up slightly in Monday afternoon’s trading, though it did better earlier in the day.
For those not familiar already, Manchester United is a premiere force in soccer, here used interchangeably with football to avoid any confusion in the United States. The latest bid from Qatar is part of a coalition effort. The Qatar Investment Authority is providing some “assistance.” Though the bid is shaping up, only one potential investor—Sir Jim Ratcliffe—has actually declared an interest. Ratcliffe also worked with Goldman Sachs, reports note. Ratcliffe turned to Goldman Sachs not just for advice but to also offer debt financing on a potential purchase.
Currently, Manchester United rates among the top 20 most valuable sports teams on Earth for any sport, rated at number 19 between the Denver Broncos and the Miami Dolphins. That could make potential investment a possibility, and it’s not even quite clear if the current owners will actually sell the team outright or are merely in the market for partnership investors. That uncertainty is keeping some potential buyers out of the pool.
However, Manchester United still has plenty of friends among hedge funds. The overall trend among hedge funds is Positive, as they added 243,200 shares to their holdings in the last quarter.
