Manchester United Posts Wider Pre-tax Loss In Q4 - Update

(RTTNews) - English football club Manchester United Plc (MANU) Wednesday reported a wider pre-tax loss for its fourth quarter, while net profit increased as the firm recorded a higher tax credit.

Ed Woodward, executive vice chairman stated, "...Our commercial business continues to be a very powerful engine of growth enabling the team to continue to be successful."

Commercial revenue climbed 34.9 percent to 37.9 million pounds, with 49 percent increase in sponsorship revenue.

For the fourth quarter, the Manchester, England based club posted a pre-tax loss of 27.94 million pounds, wider than 20.34 million pounds in the previous year.

The company recorded a tax credit of 134.04 million pounds in the recent quarter, significantly up from 5.43 million pounds in the prior year.

Profit for the period was 106.1 million pounds, compared to a loss of 14.91 million pounds a year ago. On a per share basis, earnings were 0.65 pounds, as against loss of 0.10 pounds last year. Adjusted loss for the latest period was 0.02 pounds, while the firm posted a loss of 0.07 pounds per share in the year-ago quarter.

Quarterly revenues grew 14.2 percent to 85.1 million pounds from 74.49 million pounds a year earlier.

For the fiscal year, the company's loss before tax was 8.79 million pounds, compared to a loss of 4.66 million pounds a year earlier. After-tax profit increased to 146.42 million pounds from 23.31 million pounds in the preceding year. Earnings per share were 0.90 pounds, higher than 0.15 pounds reported last year.

Annual revenues increased 13.4 percent to 363.19 million pounds from 320.32 million pounds in fiscal 2012.

Looking ahead to fiscal 2014, Manchester United expects revenue to lie between 420 million pounds and 430 million pounds.

MANU closed Tuesday's regular trading at $17.11 on the NYSE.