On my recent IPO watch it tank list LOL........MANU a soccer team IPO???? hmmmmmmm 7,987,332 traded in the first 25 minutes.
LONDON (Reuters) - Manchester United will make its New York Stock Exchange debut on Friday after a flotation that disappointed the English soccer club's American owners and has enraged some of its fans.
Soccer is the world's most popular sport, but the setback for the initial public offering underlines the limited appeal of even its biggest names for investors.
The IPO priced at $14, below the $16-20 range the club's bankers had been seeking. It valued the 19-times English champions at only $2.3 billion and shaved as much as $100 million off the proceeds expected for the team and its owners.
The offering raised $233.2 million, to be split equally between the club and its owners, the Florida-based Glazer family.
The loss of as much as $50 million for the club will be a blow as it copes with a heavy debt burden and seeks to buy new players, who cost tens of millions of dollars each.
The 134-year-old club looked at listing in Singapore and Hong Kong last year to tap into its large Asian fan base but pulled out, blaming volatile markets.
A group of United fans who are campaigning for greater involvement in the ownership of the club jeered the Glazers.
"When the news finally came, it was revealed they'd been forced to take $14 a share or let the whole deal collapse. A massive humiliating blow for the Glazers," the vocal Manchester United Supporters Trust (MUST) said.
In a rare example of fans cheering against their team, MUST said they hoped the share price would fall to around $10 and make the club a takeover target.
"A valuation of MUFC of 1 billion pounds ($1.6 billion) brings it into the same ball park valuation as potential bidders," it said.
"Supporters will hope an offer from a supporter-friendly consortium, which
http://www.businessinsider.com/manchester-uniteds-14-price-already-signals-a-troubled-ipo-2012-8
Realist - Everybody in America is soft, and hates conflict. The cure for this, both in politics and social life, is the same -- hardihood. Give them raw truth.
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