By Paul Nicholson
February 13 – Manchester United announced another quarter of record financial revenue with executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward confident that the club would still be able to sustain financial momentum even if it failed to qualify for the Champions League 2014/15 competition. He also indicated the club would be spending substantially in the summer looking to a long-term future as the first team is re-built.
Revenue for the second half of 2013 hit £122.9 million, compared to £110.1 million the year before. Half-year turnover increased from £186.6 million to £221.4 million. The club said that revenue for the financial year is still expected to be between £420m-£430m
The club generated commercial income of £42.3 million, up 18.8% for the second quarter – which ended on December 31 – and 30% for the financial year to date.
This increase has been driven by new sponsorship deals activated during this period, including with Unilever, Hong Kong Jockey Club, Banif Bank, Fuji TV, SPOTV Korea and STC.
Broadcasting revenues increased by 18.7% for the quarter following new domestic and international television rights agreements.
The club’s gross debt has been reduced to £356.6 million, but crucially the club has an additional £72 million which can be used to strengthen the squad. United were not revealing any detail of the ongoing negotiations regarding a new kit supplier – their current deal with Nike expires at the end of the season.
Woodward, in a conference call to financial analysts, said the focus was very much on building a long-term strategy and that the size and strength of the club’s fanbase has taken a long time to build and wouldn’t disappear overnight. He expressed the disappointment of the whole club in the current league position but said that they would be strengthening the playing squad/
Woodward said: “Our starting point [for] long-term strategy is to focus on building a competitive squad that challenges for trophies. Part of the financial strength we have and we have presented in the results today demonstrates that we have the ability to do that. We have the ability to buy players, to churn players, to make sure we are competing at the top level, which is what we should be doing.
“… it takes a long time to build up a huge fan base, to have, if you like, the equity values of what we are as a business and a club projected out there so people can understand from a commercial perspective why it make sense to partner with us. And I don’t think that will go away for a long time.”
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