This week the interest rate on the infamous Payment in Kind ("PIK") loans
taken out by the Glazer family in 2006 and secured on their ownership of
Manchester United rises from 14.25% to a staggering 16.25% per annum. According
to the Financial Times, the increase in the interest rate has been triggered by
the Glazers' failure to keep the amount of debt down to targets struck in
2006.
The increasing cost of the PIKs will inevitably be borne by Manchester
United. The Glazer family have failed to repay a single penny of "their" debts
in the last four years, their US businesses are struggling and the only source
of cash is our football club. The bond issue allows the Glazers to take hundreds
of millions of pounds out of the club to pay down the PIKs, despite David Gill
telling us that they are "their responsibility".
The rise in the PIK interest rate this week, caused by the Glazers'
inability to hit their own targets, is another sad chapter in the story of the
Glazers' exploitation of Manchester United.
