God bless America....and it's English football team!
Glazers take seats on Manchester United board
Tue 07 Jun, 6:38 PM
LONDON (Reuters) - Soccer club Manchester United Plc <MNU.L> said on Tuesday that Avram, Bryan and Joel Glazer, the three sons of U.S. tycoon Malcolm Glazer, had joined the board as non-executive directors following the takeover of the club.
The English Premier League side said in a statement that Roy Gardner had resigned as chairman and Ian Much and Jim O'Neill had resigned as non-executive directors, as expected.
On May 16, U.S. financier Malcolm Glazer said he had raised his stake in Manchester United to over 75 percent, finally gaining full control of the club he battled to acquire for more than two years.
The reshuffle leaves the line up of United's board with the three Glazers as non executives directors and three executive directors; Chief Executive David Gill, Nick Humby, United's group finance director and Andy Anson, the commercial director who has been reappointed to the board after being ousted by Glazer when his last bid attempt fell apart.
One key question is whether CEO David Gill intends to stay with United once Glazer's takeover of the club has been completed.
A source close to the process said Gill had been asked to stay on but that so far no talks had been held between him and the Glazer camp.
"We'll negotiate new terms once the acquisition is complete," the source said. "He's been invited to stay and we hope he will stay."
Glazer finally seized control of Manchester United last month by buying a 28.7 percent stake from the club's biggest shareholder, Cubic Expression, an investment vehicle for Irish racehorse magnates John Magnier and J.P. McManus.
Over the following days, Glazer's advisers snapped up more shares until they reached a key 75 percent plus threshold, giving the American full control of the club. He now owns 76.2 percent and has launched an offer for the remaining shares.
The first indication of shareholders' appetite for the deal will come on June 13, the first closing date of Glazer's offer.
The source said reception had been good so far, with Glazer already gaining about another 4 percent of the club bringing his holding to over 80 percent. That figure could rise between now and Monday as most shareholders tend to wait until the closing date before tendering their shares.
If Glazer reaches 97.5 percent, he will have the right to squeeze out the remaining shareholders, a hard core of United fans who have vowed to fight the U.S. financier to the last.
In a normal takeover the bar is 90 percent but because Glazer had such a high proportion of the shares before posting his offer document -- 76.2 percent -- he needs to get 90 percent of the remainder before the squeeze out can begin.
