Manchester United to pay around £11 million to shareholders in dividends
Manchester United’s latest financial report was released this week.
While a mountainous debt still exists of £439 million, the report is still a profitable one for the Glazer family.
A key line in the report confirms dividend payments will continue, with shareholders set to reap their rewards on January 7.
The report states: “A semi-annual cash dividend of $0.09 per share will be paid on 7 January 2022, to shareholders of record on 1 December 2021.”
Football finance expert Kieran Maguire reports this equates to approximately £11 million.
The majority of this cash goes to six share-owning members of the Glazer family, the club’s majority shareholders.
From the £10.7 million paid out in dividends in June, the Glazers netted £8 million, BBC Sport reported. The latest price per share is the same.
How Joel Glazer justified taking dividend payments
The controversial issue of shareholders taking the dividends from United was raised in the fan forum attended via Zoom by Joel Glazer back in June.
Glazer told the fan forum: “We don’t take any salaries, any management fees, anything else.
“Any time that type of thing happens, it has to be reported. You know, being a public company, we’re subject to more disclosure and more information than probably any other club. We have to report quarterly. We’re under strict, strict rules, so there’s no other areas that we are being paid money.”
Earlier this year the Swiss Ramble reported that United have paid a staggering £112 million to shareholders in five years.
This could have had a huge impact on bringing down the club’s debt of £439 million.
Despite the financial challenges, #MUFC have still found enough cash to pay their shareholders (mainly the Glazers) a full dividend. Nothing was paid in first 6 months, but £10.7m payment was made 7 days after these accounts. Works out to £23m annually (£112m in last 5 years). pic.twitter.com/zFEYhYdal1
— Swiss Ramble (@SwissRamble) March 9, 2021
As the second graph shows above, United were the only Premier League club between 2016 and 2020 to pay any dividends out to shareholders.
This is a major point of contention for fans, and one the Glazers seem to have no intention of changing.
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