22 Aug 2012

Soros buys stake in Manchester United

12:29 pm on 22 August 2012

The American billionaire investor George Soros has bought a stake in the English football club Manchester United.

Mr Soros' investment fund bought a 7.85% stake in Class A shares - about 3.1 million - in the club.

His shares equate to a 1.9% stake in the entire club, worth about 50 million dollars.

Manchester United has been controlled since 2005 by the Glazer family, the billionaire US sports investors who also own the Tampa Bay Buccaneers American football franchise.

About half of the 287 million dollars that the club raised from this month's float on the US stock market will go to paying off the club's debts, with the rest going to the Glazers.

Mr Soros will have no voting power.

The 82-year-old investor considered a takeover of AS Roma in 2008, but decided against it due to the club's debt problems.

Mr Soros became prominent in 1992 when he successfully bet on the devaluation of the British pound, netting about 1.2 billon dollars in the process and earning him the moniker: "The man who broke the Bank of England".