Manchester United Posts Narrower Loss In Q4, Revenue Up 27.1%; Issues Outlook

(RTTNews) - Manchester United (MANU), one of the most popular sports teams in the world, reported a fourth-quarter loss of 0.9 million pounds compared to a loss of 6.9 million pounds, previous year. Basic loss per share was 0.58 pence compared to a loss of 4.22 pence per share. Adjusted EBITDA rose 53.1% to 49.3 million pounds. Adjusted profit for the period increased to 8.7 million pounds from 1.4 million pounds. Adjusted basic earnings per share was 5.31 pence compared to 0.85 pence. Fourth-quarter revenue increased to 134.6 million pounds from 105.8 million pounds. Broadcasting revenue for the quarter was 47.7 million pounds, an increase of 16.9%, over the prior year quarter, primarily due to domestic cup progression and UEFA competition wash-up payments. For the quarter, commercial revenue was 65.2 million pounds, an increase of 42.0%, over the prior year quarter.

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. For fiscal 2017, Manchester United expects: revenue to be in the range of 530 million to 540 million pounds; and adjusted EBITDA to be in the range of 170 million to 180 million pounds.