Manchester United reveals IPO details; announces seven-year shirt sponsorship with GM

English soccer club Manchester United on Monday revealed details of its long-awaited initial public offering.

• It plans to offer 16.7 million shares on the New York Stock Exchange
• Shares will be priced between $16 and $20 a share, meaning the IPO could raise more than $330 million.
• The club's ticker will be MANU.

Manchester United is owned by the American Glazer family, which took over the club using mostly debt; according to the filing, there is still £437 million ($687 million) of borrowings outstanding; finance costs in 2011 alone were £51 million.

The Glazers will retain control of the club through its ownership of Class B shares, which will have 10 times the voting power of the stock sold to the public.

The club was listed on the London Stock Exchange from 1991 until the Glazers completed a leveraged buyout valued at $1.47 billion in June 2005.

The Glazers also own the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Manchester United have agreed a seven year deal with Chevrolet, which will see the car manufacturer replace Aon as the club's official shirt sponsor.

Chevrolet is the current Official Car Partner of the Red Devils, and will become only the fifth shirt sponsor in the club’s 134 year history, at the beginning of the 2014/15 season.

The team just three years ago signed a jersey agreement with then-Chicago-based insurance brokerage Aon Corp., which has since moved its headquarters to London to gain proximity to financial markets and benefit from a lower tax burden.

That deal has been estimated to be worth more than $30 million annually — the most lucrative jersey sponsorship deal in soccer history — and GM is reportedly shelling out between $60 million and $70 million annually, according to Reuters, to become the fifth jersey sponsor in the team's history and advertise to its estimated following of 659 million people.
It's worth noting that Man U has now signed its second consecutive American company, in line with the efforts of several European soccer clubs that are trying to grow fans in the United States.