01, 12 News According to a document released by the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday, Ariel Investments will
Nearly 3 million United shares were sold in the last quarter.
The document did not reveal a price or timing for the sale, but the Glazers listed on the New York Stock Exchange after the Glazers announced they had “began to explore strategic alternatives … including a new investment in the club, a sale or other transaction involving the company”.
The club’s share price soared.
That was on November 22, when the club’s share price was around $13 (£10.74).
The price per share was close to $15 at the close of the day and over $20 the next day.
United’s shares are closing at $23 (£19) in 2022, more than double from their low of $10.41 last summer.
More than 250,000 United shares changed hands on 21 November, but as the Glazer family’s 17-year reign at Old Trafford may be coming to an end, the volume soared to 6 million shares on 22 November and 25 November.
On Thursday, the day after the market closed for Thanksgiving, a staggering 35 million shares traded.
It is now clear that a significant portion of these shares were once held by Chicago-based investment firm Ariel Investments, which was United’s largest single shareholder prior to this sell-off, and which is now back at London-based Lindsell Train
company.
By the end of September, Ariel had sold just over a quarter of his more than 11 million United shares, reaping a tidy profit from the $100 million he bought in 2021, when United were trading at 15-16
between dollars.
Indeed, Ariel’s status as United’s largest single institutional investor is secured by Cristiano Ronaldo’s return to the club in 2021, another event that boosted the club’s share price, with the Portuguese star’s contract up for sale at the club.
Terminated by Manchester United on the same day.
However, that doesn’t mean Ariel’s co-chief executives John Rogers and Mellody Hobson are big fans of Ronaldo.
Either they’re just voting with their feet, or they know something about a potential Manchester United sale that the rest of us don’t.
More likely, they simply see the current stock price movement as an easy profit opportunity.
Neither Ariel nor United responded to requests for comment.