Allen & Overy and Latham & Watkins are advising Manchester United Finance and a banking syndicate, respectively, as the English football club seeks to raise £500m from an offering of senior secure notes due 2017, to restructure its mounting debts.

The English Premier League (EPL) team has been struggling under the weight of interest payments due on debts that the Glazer family ran up in order to purchase the club back in 2005. In the financial year ending 30 June, 2009, the club had to pay out close to £42m in interest payments. The bond issue will be used to repay the senior secured notes and the debt restructure will ensure that Sir Alex Ferguson, the club’s manager, will have funds at hand to acquire players in the transfer market.

In 2008, the EPL club launched its first ever legal panel. The panel comprises five firms including Brabners Chaffe Street, Beachcroft, Halliwells, Pinsent Masons and Wiggins. A&O, which acted for the Glazers in their 2005 purchase, also enjoys a long-standing relationship with the club. Outside the panel arrangement it advises Manchester United and its Red Football parent companies in relation to corporate finance matters.

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