Liverpool FC Forum

by **Reg** » Wed Nov 16, 2011 2:31 am

Tue 15 Nov 2011 LONDON (Reuters) - English Premier League soccer champions Manchester United on Tuesday reported an increase in first quarter earnings and said it had reduced its debt, benefiting from a sharp rise in commercial revenue.

The club, which in September put on hold a planned $1 billion (630 million pounds) flotation in Singapore due to market volatility, said earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 30 percent to 19.3 million pounds in its first quarter to end September.

Manchester United, which currently sits in second place in the Premier League, said its gross debt had fallen to 433.2 million pounds from 516.7 million.

The club, which is the most successful in English football, received permission in September for an IPO, through which it was looking to sell up to 30 percent of the club.

It had planned to use some of the proceeds to bring down its debt, a burden which had made the Glazer family, the club's U.S. owners, deeply unpopular with supporters.

The club said it had seen continued momentum in its commercial business and a recovery in seasonal and matchday hospitality businesses.

Total revenue rose by 17 percent to 73.8 million pounds, including a 22 percent increase in commercial revenues to 29.6 million pounds as the club reaped the benefits of a new 80 million pounds shirt sponsorship deal with Aon Corp.

Media revenues, including television rights, rose by 17 percent to 22.6 million pounds. Matchday revenues were up 10 percent to 21.6 million pounds.

Clubs across Europe are trying to increase their revenue streams in order to meet tough new financial criteria set by the game's governing body, UEFA.

by **neil** » Wed Nov 16, 2011 12:13 pm

ok mate

by **metalhead** » Wed Nov 16, 2011 1:12 pm

Well, we will probably do things differently such as exploiting markets around Asia and USA to increase our revenues. I don't know what our cost cutting plans are though

by **aCe'** » Thu Nov 17, 2011 1:43 am

Regardless of what you think of our previous owners, they really pushed improving the commercial revenue generated by the club and they put us at a much better position on that front than we've ever been. Im sure the current owners are going to want to further such efforts and the importance of them cannot be emphasized enough imo. Regardless of success on the field or our financial books, we have something that many other clubs strive for and thats brand equity. We have a huge following of largely loyal supporters throughout the world an Ive always maintained that we dont do enough to capitalize on that. ManUtd do it better than any other club in the world and that imo is a significant factor in explaining why they are so far ahead of us in terms on finances in general and commercial revenue/merchandise sales in specific. Many will no doubt play down the importance of that but looking at the numbers doesnt quite paint the full picture. Other factors such as sponsorship deals and share prices (if applicable, or value of the club to put it in a different way) are largely influenced by such sources of revenue.

by **ethanr** » Thu Nov 17, 2011 5:19 am

We've been creating partnerships with so many different companies lately. All the time you see something on the offal that says LFC are proud to announce a new relationship with.... I know we've had a tool company, a hotel chain, a Turkish travel company, and I'm pretty sure theirs been a few more. It's not like we are making these agreements so that we can get cheap tools or free flights to Turkey whenever we please... We have to be making money off these agreements.

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Manchester united increases earnings - And cuts debt

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