Manchester United’s Initial Public Offering
Davis Polk advised Jefferies & Company, Inc., Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC, J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated and Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. as joint book-running managers in connection with the $233 million initial public offering of 16,666,667 Class A ordinary shares of Manchester United plc. Of these shares, Manchester United offered 8,333,334 shares and the selling shareholder offered 8,333,333 shares. The Class A ordinary shares are listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “MANU.”
Manchester United is one of the most popular and successful sports teams in the world. Through its 134-year history it has won 60 trophies, enabling it to develop one of the world’s leading brands and a global community of 659 million followers.
The Davis Polk corporate team included partners John B. Meade and Michael Kaplan, associates Robby Sen, Ryan C. Patterson and Marcus Hintze and law clerk Lisa Bozman. Partner Neil Barr and associate Arie Rubenstein provided tax advice. In addition, partners Simon Witty and Jonathan Cooklin in London, Paul Chow in Hong Kong and Arnaud Pérès in Paris provided English, Hong Kong and French law advice to the managers. Counsel Marcie A. Goldstein provided FINRA advice. Rosemarie Melendez was the legal assistant on the transaction. Except as noted above, members of the Davis Polk team are based in the New York office.