America's Road to Fame

Chapter 225 Goal: Manchester United

Although Chen William also has the idea of ​​​​establishing a fund of his own choice of investment objects, it is still too early. Among other things, his own Meta investment company does not count the 30 billion US dollars that will soon be purchased by the New York Times. , and more than 300 billion US dollars of funds just obtained are waiting to be invested.

At the same time, Camillo Hagen of Goldman Sachs also responded to William Chen’s plan to acquire European football clubs. In terms of the ease of acquisition and the influence of the team, the most suitable acquisition target is Manchester United. .

"Manchester United? Didn't they sell Ronaldo last year?"

"Yes, the current owner of the club is American. They have a bad reputation in Manchester United. If they are accused of selling Ronaldo, then the operation after selling Ronaldo will let everyone including the fans. They are all very angry, and now almost all Manchester United fans want them to leave as soon as possible, so if you buy Manchester United, I am afraid that you will get widespread support."

"At the same time, compared to other clubs, Manchester United's shares are very concentrated and have been privatized. You only need to get the consent of the owner to buy 100% of Manchester United's shares. And whether it is influence or earning power, Manchester United are top picks."

Through the information of Camillo Hagen, Chen William also learned about the current situation of Manchester United.

The Manchester United club is now owned by the Glazer family. They have acquired Manchester United's shares since 2004. On May 2005, 5, the Glazer family acquired the two major shareholders of Manchester United, John Magnier and JP McManus, the third largest. Shareholder Harry Dobson and some other scattered shares held 12% of the shares that night, taking a substantial step towards the acquisition of Manchester United.

Four days later, the Glazer family's shares exceeded the critical point of 4%, and began to complete the privatization of Manchester United.

However, this is also the beginning of the Glazer family being protested by Manchester United supporters. The main reason is that they did not use all their own funds to acquire Manchester United, but completed it through leveraged buyouts.

The Glazer family paid a total of about 2005 million pounds for the acquisition of Manchester United in 7.9, which was equivalent to 14 billion U.S. dollars at the time. Among these acquisition funds, they borrowed more than 3 million pounds from Morgan Bank and more than 2 million pounds from the three major hedge funds. To 2.5 million pounds, equivalent to only 4.5 million U.S. dollars.

Crucially, after the Glazer family completed the acquisition, they passed on 7 million pounds ($12.5 billion) of debt to Manchester United.

Therefore, for so many years, although Manchester United has been one of the most profitable clubs in the world, they have not had much money to improve the club's conditions and buy players, and they have been repaying debts.

Especially last year, Manchester United sold Ronaldo to Real Madrid for a record high price of 8000 million pounds, but these funds were not used by Manchester United, but were used by the Glazer family to repay the loan.

So since the Glazer family took over Manchester United, the protests have never stopped.

As early as August 2004, when Manchester United was acquired by the Glazer family, David Gill, CEO of Manchester United, warned that "debt is the road to destruction."

Afterwards, a portrait of Malcolm Glazer, head of the Glazer family, was burned outside Old Trafford; a Manchester United reserve game was stopped by a group of masked men.

The group of uninvited guests claimed to be "Manchester Board of Education" people, under the banner of opposing the acquisition of Glazer.

After the Glazer family completed the acquisition and dumped a debt of 7 million pounds to Manchester United, some fans who opposed the Glazer family left Manchester United. They set up another door and formed United Manchester Football Club ("United Manchester"). This team has been promoted to the sixth tier league in England so far.

Most of the remaining fans will have to endure the ever-increasing ticket prices and the sale of the star players in order to pay off the debts of Manchester United.

Especially since the beginning of this year, the Glazer family has been hit hard by the subprime mortgage crisis, and business problems have arisen. They decided to issue an additional 5 million pounds of bonds to raise funds. As a result, the "Green Gold Movement" organized by fans was triggered.

They waved the green and gold scarves of Manchester United's former Newton Heath football team during the Manchester United game, expressing dissatisfaction with the Glazer family and concern about the club's future.

Just a few days ago, Beckham returned to Old Trafford on behalf of AC Milan in the Champions League.After the game, he also picked up a green and gold scarf and put it on, which became the most impressive scene of the day, putting more pressure on the Glazer family.

At the same time, rich people among Manchester United fans formed an organization called the "Red Knights" to try to acquire Manchester United through crowdfunding. They offered the Glazer family 10 billion pounds (equivalent to 15 billion pounds at this time). U.S. dollars) to buy Manchester United Club, but was rejected by the Glazer family in the end. The main reason is not the price, but the Glazer family thinks they are a blank check. Once they let go and agree to the acquisition, then it is inevitable It will be caught by the other party and lead more people to oppose them.

So what is the origin of this red knight?In fact, it also has a relationship with Goldman Sachs. Their leaders include Jim O'Neill, chief economist of Goldman Sachs, Mark Laurinson, a partner at Fuld Law Firm, and Paul Marshall, founder of the Wace Marshall hedge fund.
Moreover, the investment bank under Nomura Securities of Japan also participated in it, and contacted more than 40 rich people who were interested in participating in the acquisition and prepared to join the acquisition.

Interestingly, Guy Dawson and Andrew McNaught, two important figures under Nomura Securities, helped the Glazers acquire Manchester United in 2005, and now they have turned against each other and want to help the Red Knights acquire Manchester United.

It's just that Camillo Hagen believes that the acquisition of the Red Knights is doomed to be difficult to succeed, because it is impossible for the Glazer family to believe that the fan organization composed of these rich people can really raise so much money to acquire Manchester United, so Absolutely will not easily accept the offer and negotiation requirements of the other party.

But if Chen William claims to buy, it will be different.On the one hand, William Chen is No.4 in the just-announced rich list, and the whole world knows that he has enough assets to support this acquisition.

And Chen William's energy in the United States is not comparable to those Europeans and Asians who proposed to buy Manchester United before.After all, the Glazer family is still based in the United States. Their family also has a Florida-based football team, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and their main industries are food processing and supermarkets. Affected by the subprime mortgage crisis, their main business is currently also suffered a major blow.

Therefore, if Chen William buys Manchester United now, it can be said to be a very good opportunity.As for the purchase price, Camillo Hagen believes that less than US$15 billion will be a price acceptable to the other party. After all, when the Glazer family acquired Manchester United, they only paid US$4.5 million through a leveraged buyout. The exchange rate against the U.S. dollar is much higher than it is now, and their family has obtained a lot of benefits from Manchester United over the years, so the initial quotation can be priced at 12 billion U.S. dollars.

Another advantage of Chen William is that he owns many media resources in the United States, including film companies, Twitter, Reddit and the "New York Observer", and even has the opportunity to acquire the "New York Times" soon.

The Glazer family may not care about the protests of the Europeans. After all, their business is mainly in the United States, but if William Chen puts pressure on them through the American media, then they can't help but ignore it.

Now it is an economic crisis, once the American people think through the media that their family is an unscrupulous businessman relying on Manchester United to suck blood, then the blow to their business will be fatal.

Uh, I have to say that Goldman Sachs' acquisition methods are really three-dimensional and diverse, but William Chen likes it very much.

He said right away that Camillo Hagen could start contacting the Glazer family, so he followed his idea and offered 12 billion US dollars to test first to see how the other party reacted.

In his previous life, William Chen often watched football games. He was a fan, but he was not a fanatic. He didn't have any favorite teams. But now, it is good to be able to add the status of a wealthy owner.

Does he know that Manchester United has countless supporters all over the world, and there are a lot of fans in China, even in the United States, which is called a football desert, there are still a lot of fans, including stars and celebrities , if the Glazer family still insists not to sell Manchester United, then these people can be put to good use.

(End of this chapter)