Manchester Utd posts 39% rise in quarterly revenues

Manchester United has reported that overall quarterly revenues to 30 September went up 39.3% to £123.6m.

The record revenues were boosted by sales of its new 2015-16 Adidas replica kit, and Champions League football.

The club expects overall revenue for the year to be between £500m and £510m. No club has exceeded £500m before.

The team are fourth in the Premier League, two points behind rivals Man City, and also top their Champions League group table after four games.

The Old Trafford club failed to qualify for Europe's premier club competition last season but its return to Champions League competition has seen a big leap in matchday and broadcast revenues.

In July 2014 it signed a record-breaking deal with Adidas, worth £750m over 10 seasons.

'Connect with fans'

Club executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward said the revenues demonstrated "the continued strength of our businesses".

During the quarter, the club also brought the management of its Old Trafford Megastore in-house and signed a licensing deal with South Korean footwear brand Sbenu.

In total, four sponsorship deals were signed in the quarter, including a global deal with Marathon Bet.

Mr Woodward added: "During the quarter, we entered into an agreement with HCL to be our Digital Transformation partner, which will enable us to connect with our fans around the world in innovative ways and further strengthen and grow our commercial revenues."

Profit for the period was £5m, down 43.8% from the £8.9m figure a year previously.

Dividend

The drop in profit was partly caused by a loss on player trading of £7.4m. There was a negative impact from the sales of players Angel Di Maria, Robin van Persie and Nani, which was partly offset by the profit made on the sale of Javier Hernandez.

That compared with a profit of £18.3m a year before - that sum being largely due to the sale of Danny Welbeck to Arsenal for £18m.

The EBITDA figure, which indicates the underlying profitability of a company, was up more than 100% to £41.6m.

The club also confirmed it had approved a quarterly cash dividend shareholders of $0.045 per share, a move which will see the six Glazer children, who own the club and about four-fifths of the club's shares, paid millions of dollars in dividends annually.

Despite their strong start to the season, there have been complaints from some fans and former players that the club's current possession football is less exciting in comparison with the more attacking sides of the past.