Man Utd shares open barely higher from cut-price IPO

NEW YORK (AFP) –

Manchester United shares opened barely higher than their $14 cut-price initial public offering Friday, adding a bare five cents as the overall market slumped.

Manchester United shares opened barely higher than their $14 cut-price initial public offering Friday, adding a bare five cents in New York as the overall market slumped.

Underwriters for the British football team’s IPO had slashed the offering price from a planned $16-20 Thursday amid doubts that it could match its legendary record on the field with a similar profit performance for investors.

After striking a high of $14.20, after 45 minutes of trade the shares were steady at $14.04.

Manchester United has been mired in debt since 2005 after a heavily leveraged takeover by the Miami-based Glazer family, whose management since has endured a constant hail of criticism from the team’s tens of millions of fans.

Investors have also become wary about aggressively priced IPOs since the much-promoted Facebook launch soured, with the social networking giant’s shares slumping by nearly half since its May 18 listing.