Manchester United (NASDAQ:MANU) may be one of the biggest names in soccer—or football, as it’s more widely known—but its stock took a huge run up thanks to some new bidding action. Investors drove share prices up over 6.6% in Wednesday’s trading as a result.
The new reports suggest that Manchester United has fielded “world record bids,” which featured Sheikh Jassim Bin Hamad Al Thani of Qatar, who—as part of a consortium of Qataris—is set to hike its original offer of 4.5 billion pounds. Meanwhile, Jim Ratcliffe—a British billionaire—is likewise set to hike his offer from his original, which was less than 4.5 billion pounds. Reports suggest that Ratcliffe’s offer will clear five billion pounds and will include taking on debt.
Neither offer, however, may prove fruitful. Manchester United’s current owners, the Glazer family, are reportedly out to get over 6 billion pounds. Ratcliffe may not be interested in going that high, as he currently owns a soccer club, French Ligue 1’s OGC Nice. He also owns the Ineos Grenadiers cycling team. But with fans reportedly pressuring the Glazers to ditch the team due to “underperformance,” one of the two major parties’ offers may prove to be enough.
Interestingly, hedge fund confidence in Manchester United stock is currently Very Negative. Indeed, hedge funds pared back their holdings by 2.3 million shares in the last quarter, the largest move either way since 2021.
