United set to announce record revenues

MANCHESTER: Football giants Manchester United are set to announce record revenues of around £420 million for last season when they publish their annual results on Wednesday.

Figures are also expected to include £25m in profit, aided by worldwide sales of two million replica shirts.

The results should also include details of the pay-off to former manager David Moyes, sacked less than one season after succeeding long-serving and multiple trophy-winning boss Alex Ferguson at Old Trafford.

However, this set of accounts is not expected to include the scale of losses incurred as a result by the club’s failure to qualify for lucrative European tournaments as a result of finishing an unusually lowly seventh in the English Premier League last season.

Forecasts for the headline figures have already been published in a prospectus published in August for a new release of shares on the New York Stock Exchange, with the US-based Glazer family the majority stakeholders in the English football institution.

The prospectus states that total revenue is expected to be between £429 million to £434 million, an increase of 18 to 19 percent.

Profit for the year is expected to be £23 million to £25million – down from the £146.4 million for 2012/13 but that was mainly due to a one-off tax credit.

Approximately five million Manchester United-branded licensed products were sold last year including two million replica shirts.

The prospectus said: “The Manchester United jersey and training wear are completely redesigned for each season. The annual launch of the new jersey is always a much-anticipated day for our global community of followers.

“The result is a robust wholesale apparel business that sold approximately five million items of Manchester United branded licensed products, including approximately two million replica jerseys, around the world in the last year.”

-AFP