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A small portion of the club's shares is listed
on the New York Stock Exchange. The market capitalization was
more than $4 billion as of Wednesday's close.
"We are willing and expect to go higher than that $3.9 billion,"
Zilliacus said in a statement.
United's current owners, the Glazer family, began looking at
options including new investment or a potential sale in
November, 17 years after they bought the record 20-time English
champions for 790 million pounds ($971.70 million).
Zilliacus said he hoped the Glazer family would want "to go down
in history as sellers who enabled the fans of Manchester United
to become owners of the club".
As part of the bid, he expects to invite fans of the club from
around the world to be co-owners and make sporting decisions for
the team.
"I want the fans to feel that they have a say in all the key
sporting decisions of the club," Zilliacus said.
Manchester United declined to comment.
Any sale of the club would likely exceed the biggest sports deal
so far - the $5.2 billion including debt and investments paid
for Chelsea - sources had told Reuters previously.
British billionaire Jim Ratcliffe, a life-long United fan and
founder of chemicals producer INEOS, put in a bid for the club
in February.
($1 = 0.8130 pounds)
(Reporting by Akash Sriram and Akanksha Khushi in Bengaluru;
Editing by Devika Syamnath)
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