Manchester United plc 2016 Third Quarter Results

Manchester United (NYSE: MANU; the “Company” and the “Group”) – one of the most popular and successful sports teams in the world - today announced financial results for the 2016 fiscal third quarter and nine months ended 31 March 2016.

Highlights

• Commercial revenues of £65.8 million up 37.7% for the quarter.
• Five sponsorship deals announced in the quarter:
  • New Global deals with Gulf Oil International and 20th Century Fox
  • Regional deal with YouC1000 (isotonic drinks partner in Indonesia)
  • MUTV deal with Sina Sports in China
  • Renewal of partnership with Yanmar
• Announced licensing deal with Columbia as Manchester United’s first Official Outdoor Apparel Partner.
• International Premier League Broadcasting rights up approximately 40% for the 2017-19 cycle.

Commentary

Ed Woodward, Executive Vice Chairman, commented, “The conclusion to this year’s season demonstrates once again why the Premier League is the most popular league in the most popular sport.

As we reflect on our season, we are delighted by the emergence of yet another crop of exciting young players that demonstrate once again our terrific track record of youth development. We are looking forward to the FA Cup final on May 21st and hopefully winning this special trophy for a record equaling twelve times.”

Outlook

For fiscal 2016, Manchester United expects:

• Revenue to be £500m to £510m.
• Adjusted EBITDA to be £178m to £188m.

Key Financials (unaudited)

* Adjusted EBITDA, adjusted profit/(loss) for the period and adjusted diluted earnings/(loss) per share are non-IFRS measures. See “Non-IFRS Measures: Definitions and Use” below and the accompanying Supplemental Notes for the definitions and reconciliations for these non-IFRS measures and the reasons we believe these measures provide useful information to investors regarding the Group’s financial condition and results of operations.

Revenue Analysis

Commercial

Commercial revenue for the third quarter was £65.8 million, an increase of £18.0 million, or 37.7%, over the prior year quarter.

• Sponsorship revenue for the third quarter was £38.8 million, an increase of £1.3 million, or 3.5%, over the prior year quarter.
• Retail, Merchandising, Apparel & Product Licensing revenue for the second quarter was £24.4 million, an increase of £16.8 million, or 221.1% over the prior year quarter, primarily due to the commencement of the new agreement with adidas from 1 August 2015, which included a step-up in minimum guaranteed revenues and the contribution from several businesses previously operated by Nike.
• Mobile & Content revenue for the third quarter was £2.6 million, a decrease of £0.1 million, or 3.7% over the prior year quarter.

Broadcasting

Broadcasting revenue for the third quarter was £27.8 million, an increase of £6.1 million, or 28.1%, over the prior year quarter, primarily due to participation in UEFA competitions and one additional FAPL live broadcast game in the current quarter.

Matchday

Matchday revenue for the third quarter was £29.8 million, an increase of £4.3 million, or 16.9%, over the prior year quarter, primarily due to playing two UEFA Europa League home games in the current quarter.

Other Financial Information

Operating expenses

Total operating expenses for the third quarter were £102.2 million, an increase of £3.2 million, or 3.2%, over the prior year quarter.

Employee benefit expenses

Employee benefit expenses for the third quarter were £56.2 million, an increase of £6.0 million, or 12.0%, over the prior year quarter, primarily due to renewals of existing player contracts, coupled with an uplift in annual player salaries due to participation in the UEFA Champions League.

Other operating expenses

Other operating expenses for the third quarter were £22.3 million, an increase of £2.9 million, or 14.9%, over the prior year quarter, primarily due to retail, merchandising, apparel and licensing costs now being recognized in-house, plus an increase in matchday costs as a result of playing two UEFA competition home games in the current quarter.

Depreciation & amortization

Depreciation for the third quarter was £2.5 million, which was unchanged from the prior year quarter. Amortization for the third quarter was £21.2 million, a decrease of £4.5 million, or 17.5%, over the prior year quarter. The unamortized balance of players’ registrations at 31 March 2016 was £228.3 million.

Net finance costs

Net finance costs for the third quarter were £3.6 million, a decrease of £2.2 million, or 37.9%, over the prior year quarter. The decrease was primarily due to a reduction in interest payable on the secured term loan facility and senior secured notes following the refinancing in June 2015.

Tax

The tax expense for the third quarter was £5.9 million, compared to a credit of £8.5 million in the prior year quarter.

Cash flows

Net cash generated from operating activities for the third quarter was £5.9 million, an increase of £20.9 million over the prior year quarter, primarily due to increased profit.

Capital expenditure on property, plant and equipment for the third quarter was £0.2 million, a decrease of £0.1 million over the prior year quarter.

Net player and other intangible assets capital expenditure for the third quarter was £16.1 million, an increase of £5.1 million over the prior year quarter.

Dividend

As previously approved, a $0.045 per share quarterly cash dividend on the Company's outstanding Class A and Class B ordinary shares will be payable on 10 June 2016, to shareholders of record on 26 May 2016. The stock will begin to trade ex-dividend on 23 May 2016.

The Board of Directors recently approved replacing the previous quarterly cash dividend with a regular semi-annual cash dividend on the Company's outstanding Class A and Class B ordinary shares of $0.09 per share which will be paid in January and June 2017. The specific record, ex dividend, and payment dates with respect to each semi-annual cash dividend will be announced in future releases.

Conference Call Information

The Company’s conference call to review third quarter fiscal 2016 results will be broadcast live over the internet today, 13 May 2016 at 8:00 a.m. Eastern Time and will be available on Manchester United’s investor relations website at http://ir.manutd.com. Thereafter, a replay of the webcast will be available for thirty days.

About Manchester United

Manchester United is one of the most popular and successful sports team in the world, playing one of the most popular spectator sports on Earth.

Through our 138-year heritage we have won 62 trophies, enabling us to develop the world’s leading sports brand and a global community of 659 million followers. Our large, passionate community provides Manchester United with a worldwide platform to generate significant revenue from multiple sources, including sponsorship, merchandising, product licensing, mobile & content, broadcasting and matchday.

Cautionary Statement

This press release contains forward-looking statements. You should not place undue reliance on such statements because they are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties relating to the Company’s operations and business environment, all of which are difficult to predict and many are beyond the Company’s control. Forward-looking statements include information concerning the Company’s possible or assumed future results of operations, including descriptions of its business strategy. These statements often include words such as “may,” “might,” “will,” “could,” “would,” “should,” “expect,” “plan,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “seek,” “believe,” “estimate,” “predict,” “potential,” “continue,” “contemplate,” “possible” or similar expressions. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are based on our current expectations and estimates of future events and trends, which affect or may affect our businesses and operations. You should understand that these statements are not guarantees of performance or results. They involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Although the Company believes that these forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, you should be aware that many factors could affect its actual financial results or results of operations and could cause actual results to differ materially from those in these forward-looking statements. These factors are more fully discussed in the “Risk Factors” section and elsewhere in the Company’s Registration Statement on Form F-1, as amended (File No. 333-182535) and the Company’s Annual Report on Form 20-F (File No. 001-35627).

Non-IFRS Measures: Definitions and Use

1. Adjusted EBITDA

Adjusted EBITDA is defined as profit/(loss) for the period before depreciation, amortization, profit/(loss) on disposal of players’ registrations, exceptional items, net finance costs, and tax.

We believe adjusted EBITDA is useful as a measure of comparative operating performance from period to period and among companies as it is reflective of changes in pricing decisions, cost controls and other factors that affect operating performance, and it removes the effect of our asset base (primarily depreciation and amortization), capital structure (primarily finance costs), and items outside the control of our management (primarily taxes). Adjusted EBITDA has limitations as an analytical tool, and you should not consider it in isolation, or as a substitute for an analysis of our results as reported under IFRS as issued by the IASB. A reconciliation of profit for the period to adjusted EBITDA is presented in supplemental note 2.

2. Adjusted profit/(loss) for the period (i.e. adjusted net income)

Adjusted profit/(loss) for the period is calculated, where appropriate, by adjusting for charges/credits related to exceptional items, foreign exchange gains/losses on unhedged US dollar denominated borrowings, fair value movements on derivative financial instruments, and hedge ineffectiveness on cash flow hedges, adding/subtracting the actual tax expense/credit for the period, and subtracting/adding the adjusted tax expense/credit for the period (based on an normalized tax rate of 35%; 2015: 35%). The normalized tax rate of 35% is management’s estimate of the tax rate likely to be applicable to the Group in the long-term.

We believe that in assessing the comparative performance of the business, in order to get a clearer view of the underlying financial performance of the business, it is useful to strip out the distorting effects of charges/credits related to ‘one-off’ transactions and then to apply a ‘normalized’ tax rate (for both the current and prior periods) of the US federal income tax rate of 35%. A reconciliation of profit for the period to adjusted profit for the period is presented in supplemental note 3.

3. Adjusted basic and diluted earnings/(loss) per share

Adjusted basic and diluted earnings/(loss) per share are calculated by dividing the adjusted profit/(loss) for the period by the weighted average number of ordinary shares in issue during the period. Adjusted diluted earnings/(loss) per share is calculated by adjusting the weighted average number of ordinary shares in issue during the period to assume conversion of all dilutive potential ordinary shares. We have one category of dilutive potential ordinary shares: share awards pursuant to the 2012 Equity Incentive Plan (the “Equity Plan”). Share awards pursuant to the Equity Plan are assumed to have been converted into ordinary shares at the beginning of the financial year. Adjusted basic and diluted earnings/(loss) per share are presented in supplemental note 3.

SUPPLEMENTAL NOTES

1 General information

Manchester United plc (the “Company”) and its subsidiaries (together the “Group”) is a professional football club together with related and ancillary activities. The Company incorporated under the Companies Law (2011 Revision) of the Cayman Islands, as amended and restated from time to time.

2 Reconciliation of profit for the period to adjusted EBITDA

3 Reconciliation of profit/(loss) for the period to adjusted profit for the period and adjusted basic and diluted earnings per share

4 Cash generated from operations

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