Manchester United Ltd. priced its initial public offering (IPO) well below its expected range on Thursday, valuing the British soccer club at US$2.3bn.
Manchester United priced 16.7mn shares at US$14 a piece for its IPO late on Thursday, raising US$233.2mn. That is well below the expected range of US$16 to US$20, but many analysts felt that the range was still too high in the run-up to the offering.
Half the proceeds will go to help paying down Manchester United's sizable debt and the other half will go to the owners of the team, the Glazer family, according to reports.
Underwriters will also have the option of selling up to an additional 2.5mn shares, with those proceeds going to the Glazers.
The Manchester United stock will begin trading Friday on the NYSE.
While the IPO will still be the largest sports-team offering on record, the valuation is a setback for the 134-year-old English soccer club, which had to abort plans for an listing in Singapore and then saw Morgan Stanley leave the underwriting syndicate partly due to disagreements over valuation.