Manchester United’s evaluation drops by a record 500+million pounds

The valuation of Manchester United on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) dropped by over 500 million pounds (about $628.5 million) on Tuesday amid reports that their owner, the Glazer family, have decided not to sell the club.

United’s stock price closed at $23.64 on September 1 and plunged to $19.35 at close of business on Tuesday. That 18.15 percent of fall set a new record since the club was listed in 2012. The previous record of value drop in one day was 13.5 percent in March 2020.

In fact, United’s stock price fell to $18.5 at one stage during trading, which meant more than 20 percent of their value was vaporized, before going up again ahead of the closing bell.

It has been months since the Glazer family tried to sell United and they didn’t lack buyers. INEOS founder Jim Ratcliffe, Britain’s richest man who has also been a “Red Devils” fan since childhood, as well as Qatari billionaire and royal family member Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani, have both been negotiating a purchase with the Glazer family. Sheikh Jassim  Al Thani reportedly bid five billion pounds (about $6.3 billion) for the club.

However, according to ESPN, the Glazers want six billion pounds (about $7.5 billion), which no party has met so far. United had been valued at 3.15 billion pounds (about $3.96 billion) on the NYSE before the record stock price fall on Tuesday and is listed at 2.55 billion pounds (about $3.2 billion) after the drop.

The club’s performance on the field has not been helpful. United lost to Arsenal 3-1 at the Emirates Stadium on September 3, suffering their second defeat of the four Premier League games into the 2023-24 season.

Their dressing room has not been at peace either. Jadon Sancho, who cost United 85 million euros to land two years ago, didn’t play in the loss to Arsenal. Manager Erik ten Hag said Sancho was not selected because he didn’t perform well during practice, but the player soon hit back on X: Please don’t believe everything you read! I have conducted myself in training very well this week. I believe there are other reasons for this matter that I won’t get into, I’ve been a scapegoat for a long time which isn’t fair!”