Manchester United Posts Q2 Loss, But Improving On The Pitch

(RTTNews) - English football giants Manchester United Plc (MANU) reported Thursday a small loss for the second quarter compared to a profit last year, reflecting lower revenues amid missing out on the Champions League revenues.

However, United's fortunes have improved somewhat on the pitch this season after some high-profile signings over the summer.

Bolstered by the sublime performance of goalkeeper David DeGea, the club is currently clinging to a spot in next year's lucrative Champion's League with 13 matches remaining.

Also, the club stands to benefit after the Barclays Premier League struck a rights deal that will see BSkyB and BT paying 5.14 billion pounds to televise the 2017-19 EPL seasons, up 70 percent from the 3.0 billion pounds for the 2014-16 seasons.

United signed two sponsorship deals in the quarter with Chi being named as official soft drinks partner in Nigeria and IVC (Aland), the Club's first wellness partner in China.

"The recently announced Premier League broadcasting rights package for 2017-19, representing an increase just over 70%, once again demonstrates that we are part of the top football league in the world. Notwithstanding no European football this season, our Revenues and EBITDA remain strong and demonstrate the underlying strength of our business model, with commercial revenues up year over year," Executive Vice Chairman Ed Woodward said in a statement.

Woodward added that on the pitch, the team is well positioned to challenge for a top four finish in the Premier League and are looking forward to the rest of the season.

Man U reported a net loss of 0.06 million pounds or 0.03 pence per share for the second quarter, compared to net income of 19.04 million pounds or 11.62 pence per share in the prior-year quarter.

Excluding items, adjusted income for the quarter was 4.36 million pounds or 2.66 pence, compared to 19.79 million pounds or 12.08 pence per share in the year-ago quarter.

Total revenue for the quarter declined 14 percent 105.76 million pounds from 122.93 million pounds in the same quarter last year.

Commercial revenue increased 9.7 percent to 46.4 million pounds, primarily due to a 23.4 percent rise in sponsorship revenue to 35.8 million pounds amid an increase in shirt and other sponsorships.

Broadcasting revenues declined 39.4 percent to 28.4 million pounds from the prior year, primarily due to non-participation in the UEFA Champions League in the current season.

Matchday revenue decreased 8.3 percent to 30.9 million pounds from last year, due primarily to playing no domestic cup home game and non-participation in the UEFA Champions League in the current season.

Profit on disposal of players' registrations for the quarter was 1.43 million pounds, higher than 0.85 million pounds in the prior-year quarter.

Operating expenses for the quarter grew 6.2 percent to 93.14 million pounds from 87.72 million pounds a year ago.

Looking ahead to fiscal 2015, Manchester United continues to expect revenues between 385 million pounds and 395 million pounds and adjusted EBITDA in the range of 90 million pounds to 95 million pounds.

MANU closed Wednesday's regular trading session at $17.23, up $$0.27 on a volume of 0.55 million shares. In the past 52-week period, the stock has been trading in a range of $14.26 to $19.97.