GLAZER LATEST
Malcolm Glazer will finally launch his latest attempt to buy Manchester United at the end of this week. The financial terms of his planned £800m bid, including the controversial funding arrangements, have been left virtually unchanged, it is understood.
The American is hoping to increase the pressure on United's board to give its support to an offer at 300p-ashare, a price the directors have admitted is "fair'" in terms of value for shareholders.
Rothschild, Glazer's investment banking adviser, is expected to approach Cazenove, United's City adviser, on Thursday or Friday.
United's board is then expected to take a week or more to respond. In theory, Glazer would then be able to launch a legally binding offer to United's shareholders almost immediately.
In practice, the picture may be more blurred. The chairman Sir Roy Gardner, the most senior City figure on United's board, has been deeply opposed to the takeover on the grounds that Glazer's £300m of debt could jeopardise the club's future.
It seems highly unlikely that Gardner would now perform a U-turn and allow the board to give straightforward backing to the bid.
From the MEN:
United fans are preparing to stage a demonstration against Malcolm Glazer if the American tycoon makes a third bid to buy the club this week.
The Not for Sale group, which is a coalition of the two United fans' groups and the fanzines, are urging supporters to put on a show of force to let the club's board know the strength of feeling still in opposition to Glazer.
"We want fans to get down to Old Trafford when they finish work on the day of any bid coming in, with five o'clock a good starting point," says Jules Spencer of IMUSA.
Glazer is expected to present the details of a £800m offer for the club later this week, as revealed by M.E.N. Business on Monday, putting supporters bitterly opposed to any takeover on high alert.
Hundreds of United fans staged a similar demo, with very little advance publicity, when Glazer made a bid for the club in February.
On that occasion, after a frantic rallying call using supporters' websites, Reds fans assembled in the car park opposite the Sir Matt Busby statue with banners and scarves, and sounded car horns.