It's official. Manchester United will trade on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday.
But not at the price the team wanted.
Late Thursday, the iconic soccer club priced its initial public offering ( explain this ) at $14 a share, below the $16-20 price range.
The pricing of 16.7 million shares will raise $233 million and value the company at $2.3 billion. Half of the proceeds will pay down some of the team's $680 million debt, while the other half will go to the owners — Malcolm Glazer and his family.
At the high end of the range, Manchester United would have been valued about $1 billion more.
"It is the best price for the deal," said a source close to the deal.
Jefferies acted as the lead underwriter, and multiple sources said the firm handled this transaction with as much care as any deal in its history.
"Everyone saw what happened with Facebook," said one source, who spoke on the condition on anonymity.
In that vein, the stock trading well is much more important than pricing at the high point or above the range. Pricing at the low end will be considered healthy if the stock makes a positive move when it opens on Friday morning.
Plenty of questions remain on this IPO. The first is: Who is buying?
Is it a growth company?
It's listed as one, yet the soccer club is more than 130 years old.
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