Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Manchester United Fourth Quarter Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] We would like to remind everyone that this conference call is being recorded. I will now turn the call over to Corinna Freedman, Head of Investor Relations for Manchester United.

Thank you, Allison. Hello, everyone, and welcome to Manchester United’s fourth quarter of fiscal 2021 earnings call. A press release containing our financial results was issued earlier this morning and can be accessed on our Investor Relations website. This call is being recorded and webcast and a replay of this call will be available on our website for 30 days. Before we begin, and as a matter of formality, we would like to remind everyone that this conference call will include estimates and forward-looking statements, which are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially from these statements. Any such estimates or forward-looking statements should be considered along with the disclosures included with our earnings release as well as additional risk factor discussions contained in our filings with the SEC. With us today on our call this morning, or this afternoon, if you are in the UK, is Ed Woodward, our Executive Vice Chairman; Richard Arnold, our Group Managing Director; Cliff Baty, our Chief Financial Officer; and Hemen Tseayo, our Director of Corporate Development. I will now turn the conference call over to our Executive Vice Chairman, for opening remarks. Ed?

Thank you, Corinna, and welcome everyone, and thank you for joining us today. As we review our financial results for the 2021 fiscal year, there’s no doubt that those 12 months are among the most challenging in the history of Manchester United. While the financial impact from the pandemic is visible, our continued underlying strength is also clear to see, and everyone associated with the club could be proud of the resilience that we’ve shown through these most testing of times. We said during the depths of the pandemic that the club would emerge in a stronger relative position. And I believe that we’re now seeing that borne out as we build towards recovery from a very solid foundation. The most important part of this recovery is of course the return of fans to Old Trafford, and it’s been fantastic to see in here the stadium full for the first time in almost 18 months. The amazing atmosphere during the opening home games of the season demonstrates the fans are the lifeblood of the game, and we’re so glad to have them back. I’m also delighted to say that we expect to see -- continue to see full capacity crowds at Old Trafford, both Premier League and Champions League games this season. On the pitch, the team has made a strong start in the league and everyone in the club is feeling excited about the rest of the campaign. We significantly strengthened the squad over the summer, the addition of Ronaldo, Varane, Sancho and Heaton. These signings have demonstrated our continued ability to attract some of the world’s best footballers to Old Trafford and our firm commitment to helping Ole deliver success on the pitch. Furthermore, we recently sold Dan James to Leeds for a fee of £25 million, plus…

Thank you, Ed, and thank you to everyone for joining us this morning. The fourth quarter marked the beginning of the return to normality in club operations as the UK took incremental steps towards reopening and began to tentatively emerge from the global pandemic. As Ed highlighted, it’s a tradition of the club’s ability to adapt and overcome extraordinary circumstances. This is a result of the sustainability of our operating model, combined with the enduring appeal of Manchester United, a club that has stood for resilience and excellence for nearly a century and a half. Though a full reopening of the UK was ultimately delayed a few weeks into July, our Megastore operations resumed with the April 12th opening of nonessential shops across the country and Old Trafford welcomed back 10,000 supporters for our last home match of the season on May the 18th against Fulham. Our café, museum and tour also resumed operations during the quarter. Following increased crowds for preseason fixtures and the full Old Trafford for our opening two home games, it’s our current assumption that we will continue to welcome full capacity crowds for the balance of the current season. However, we know that this remains subject to public health circumstances and associated regulations in the UK as the pandemic evolves. Nevertheless, we’re encouraged by the success of multiple largest scale sporting events held this summer in the UK, including the opening four rounds of premier league matches this season. To that end, beginning 7th of June, in anticipation of a full return of fans, we commenced the sale of season tickets for the ‘21-’22 season. We experienced a very brisk sell-out once again this year. Executive club suites and boxes have also sold out. And our membership program, generally a good leading indicator of ticket…

Thank you, Richard. I’ll now talk you through our fiscal results, which remain impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and I’ll speak to our current expectations for the upcoming fiscal year. As Richard indicated, though we are hopeful, given current guidelines in the UK, we cannot be certain that our revenues will not be impacted by further COVID-related disruption. And as a result, we are not providing any forward revenue or EBITDA guidance for the upcoming fiscal year. Turning now to the full year results. I’d like to remind you that year-on-year comparisons have been impacted, both by the absence of fans as well as the completion of the ‘19-’20 season in this fiscal year. Total revenues for the period were £494.1 million. This was £14.9 million lower than the prior year, owing to the impact of the pandemic, including a full season played behind closed doors. Adjusted EBITDA was £95.1 million, down £37 million from the prior year, due both to reduced revenues and increased wages from champions league related uplifts. Turning to the key items and the results, total commercial revenues were £232.2 million. The sponsorship revenues were £140.2 million, £42.5 million lower than the prior year due to the impact of no summer tour and COVID-related contract variations. Merchandising and licensing revenues were £92 million, down £4.3 million, reflecting the closure of the Megastore for the majority of the year, partially offset by strong growth in e-commerce. Broadcasting revenues for the year were £254.8 million, an increase of £114.6 million, due to participation in the UEFA Champions League and subsequent progression to the Europa League final, coupled with the carryover of 10-season and ‘19-’20 fixtures into July and August of 2020. Matchday revenues were £7.1 million, a reduction of £82.7 million due to all matches prior to the…

Thank you, Cliff. Before we open up the call to your questions, we would like to alert you to a change in our reporting. Starting with fiscal 2022, we will hold earnings conference calls to review the second quarter and fourth quarters. For the first and third quarters, we will issue a press release only. For the current quarter and for every future quarter, however, we will remain available for your questions, which you can submit via our Investor Relations email address at ir@manutd.co.uk. We sincerely thank you for your continued interest in Manchester United. And with that, I will turn the call back over to our operator for your questions. Allison?

Thank you. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] And our first question today will come from Xian Siew of Exane BNP Paribas. Please go ahead with your question.

Hi. Thanks for taking my question. So, congrats on signing Cristiano Ronaldo as well. Can you just talk about his impact on the commercial revenues and -- in terms of maybe shirt sale boost or marketing awareness? And I know you’re not guiding to commercial revenues, but if you think about it versus, I guess, pre-COVID levels, it seems like the momentum is there. Should we expect that to even be maybe above 2019 levels, or how do we think about it directionally?

Hi Xian, it’s Cliff. I’ll take the initial finance -- the first finance question you asked, and then I’ll hand over to Richard for the wider impact of Cristiano. I think, in terms of commercials, as was indicated, the best way to look at it, as you’ve referenced, would be our last pre-COVID season, which would be sort of ‘18-’19. What you’ve got to do is also allow for the fact we have no summer tour, really no effective summer tour for this forthcoming year. So, if you take off the effects of that, which is -- so low-double-digit revenues, we’d be expect to be in a sort of a similar place as we were pre-COVID.

And then, just on the point around the impact of Cristiano and summer signings. Just to make clear, the results that we’re presenting today and description of them do not include any effect related to Cristiano. Obviously, it’s very early in terms of his arrival, and his impact on the pitch is immediate and visible. We’ll be providing guidance as to where we are or providing an update as to where we are in terms of off-pitch activity and any effects there too in the next results we do. We’re not providing information at this stage in terms of where we’re up to on the current quarter.

Okay. And just one more on -- thanks, that’s helpful, on China. There’s been some recent choppiness, there’s been lockdowns, there’s been some demand issues over there and in other sectors. You touched on and it’s seems like things are going well there for you. Maybe just help us understand, is there any impact from maybe lockdowns at all? And how you’re seeing engagement with Chinese fans and how that could evolve?

Yes. So, I mean, obviously, in the year that we’re looking at here, there has been an effective lockdown, in terms of the outcomes received. I think that there are people much better informed than me to give you guidance on exactly how that’s rolled out in the last 12 months. In terms of where we sit on that year, there are a number of things to allude to. It’s a very large part of our family, obviously, as we’ve alluded to previously, in terms of the number of fans out in China. And that’s reflected in a number of items, A, the relationship we have with Youku and Tmall in terms of the integrated partnership and how that flows through, particularly, not just in engaging fans from a digital point of view, but also, how that’s then followed up by adidas in terms of satisfying any need that fans have for merchandise, and that’s been very successful for us. The Harves partnership and the way that that’s been received, and indeed its location, immediately adjoining Tiananmen Square. So, it’s an incredibly important part of the world for us. I’m really pleased to see that it’s bouncing back and in terms of the economic situation, and great strides have been made there in terms of building on and enhancing the engagement we have with fans.

[Operator Instructions] Our next question today will come from Randy Konik of Jefferies. Please go ahead.

Yes. Thanks a lot. Hi, guys. Back on Cristiano, I know that his arrival and signing is post the quarter-end. So, I understand there’s not going to be a want to quantify things. But, can you potentially give us some qualitative aspects of what his impact has been on a team, perhaps. I know you gave what the quarter results -- you gave some color on engagement statistics around your app or what have you. Anything you can kind of give us, if not quantify but like just qualify or talk to what his impact has been around different areas of the metrics you look at, whether it’s website, kit sales, et cetera? Just anything that you can kind of share with us would be very helpful.

Yes. I mean, just to reiterate what I said before, all of the updates we provided date to the quarter and pre-season start, so none of the statistics include any of the post-commencement of the season activities, specifically around Cristiano. I think, the focus in terms of activity around Cristiano has been incredibly positive, not least on the pitch as much but a place to describe that, the name. In terms of commercial activity, of course, it’s been positive. But indeed you see a similar positive effect for all the signings we’ve seen over the summer. And again, as I said in terms of the more quantitative update, we’ll be providing that in the next set of results and the next analysis we provide.

Got you. And then, I mean, as you think about his ability to drive the commercial segment, are you able to disproportionally utilize him and his likeness or whatever you want, if your commercial partners or prospective commercial partners want to use him in trying to sign up with your company, your brand? Like, how do you think about this type of generational star being utilized disproportionately or not relative to other players on the squad?

I think, in that final line, perhaps you’ve touched on how we view this, which is, again, all of the players that are assigned are signed exclusively for their ability to deliver on the pitch. My job in running the commercial operations of the club is to generate as much income as possible to sustain the virtuous cycle. And that relates to us a club, us as a team and every single one of our players both individually and collectively in terms of the work we do with them. So, whilst every signing we make, and again some are better known than others, have a positive effect on fan engagement, have a positive effect on the activity we do. That’s very much putting fuel into a well-run engine. And we’re well-renowned in the sports industry. We’re doing a good job of maximizing the commercial opportunity that comes to us. But, our focus is on signing players to make sure that they deliver on the pitch and then maximizing the opportunity afterwards. And to single out any one player in terms of their impact, particularly this early after a signing would be wrong.

Okay. And then lastly, I guess, Cliff, you said definitively that there’s no summer tour for summer 2022, is that finalized that that will not happen? And as we think about just post-2022, I know it’s early, when do you have to make a decision to -- how early do you make a decision to do a summer tour or not? When do the planning stages happen? I’m just curious, just to think about when we try to get back to normal, how long it’s going to be?

Thanks, Randy. Just to clarify actually, because the -- I was talking about FY22, so for us that runs from the 1st of July just gone to the end of June. So, we’ve already had this summer. And whilst we did play a couple of matches in the UK, et cetera, that’s very, very different from we would class as a typical summer tour. So, when I’m looking at the commercial revenues for you guys and giving you indication, to the previous conversation, looking at the last pre-COVID sort of commercial area, the numbers that we posted back then and in pre-COVID times, you have to take off sort of that amount from a summer tour, because we didn’t really have one, to get to a sort of underlying view of where commercial might end up. In terms of planning for next season, which is what -- which would actually be summer, which returns FY23 for us. So, I’ll just hand over to Richard. He can talk a bit more about that.

Yes. And, Randy, the primary objective of pre-season tours is to prepare the team for the forthcoming season. So, that’s something that is planned more typically on a multiyear basis but certainly evolves as we go through the year. As we look ahead to next year and the offseason activity, we are at the point where we’re evaluating alternatives. But again, we’ll monitor the situation quite carefully in respect to how the pandemic develops and how countries open up in terms of what’s best for preparing us for the succeeding season, in terms of travel versus staying at home to prepare. And there’s pluses and minuses on that in terms of the preseason preparation. But, we will be factoring in what’s going on with the pandemic. As we sit here now, I think it’s certainly far from certain in terms of whether traveling abroad is possible.

Ladies and gentlemen, this will conclude the question-and-answer session and it will also conclude the Manchester United’s fourth quarter earnings conference call. We do thank you for attending today’s presentation today. And you may now disconnect your lines.