United shareholders get special dividend

Manchester United are giving shareholders a special dividend after posting better-than-expected profits.

The club made a full-year pre-tax profit of £32.3m (€51.48m).

Turnover rose 13% to £146.1m (€232.8m).

They are paying a final dividend of 1.46p, up from 1.39p, plus a special dividend of 1.0p was proposed. This makes 3.10p for the year (at a cost of £8.1m (€12.9m)), up 55% on last year's 2.0p.

Manchester United say the proposed special dividend reflects the high level of profit from player disposals and a lower tax charge.

They say they will consider further special dividends in future years, depending on the overall profitability.

They attribute the increase in turnover to the FA Premier League's television deal with British Sky Broadcasting PLC and the club reaching the semi finals of the lucrative European Champions League.

During the period Manchester United relaunched the ManUtd.com website with new match related content and secured the UEFA Champions League Final for Old Trafford in May 2003.

The start of the new financial year saw the commencement of United's relationship with Nike and five major sponsors joining the club sponsor Vodafone - Pepsi, Budweiser, Lycos, Dimension Data and Ladbrokes.