Manchester United said its revenue rose 18% to £157.9 million in the three months to December 31, 2016, but its net debt jumped 27.1% to £409.3 million.

It its outlook, the company said that for fiscal 2017, it continued to expect revenue of between £530 million and £540 million.

United said its gross US dollar debt principal remained unchanged.

It said the increase in net debt was due to the strengthening US dollar, with the dollar-pound exchange rate moving from 1.4747 at December 31, 2015 to 1.2293 at December 31, 2016, resulting in an £88 million increase in gross debt.

Ed Woodward, Man Utd’s executive vice chairman, said: “The robustness of our business model continues to be reflected in our strong quarterly financial results and we remain on track to deliver record revenues for the year.”

According to Reuters data, Manchester United has a US stock market capitalisation of around $2.5 billion.

The company’s commercial revenue for the quarter was £66.8 million, an increase of £0.7 million, or 1.1%, over the prior year quarter. Sponsorship revenue was £38.7 million, an increase of £1.3 million.

Retail, merchandising, apparel and product licensing revenue for the quarter was £26.1 million, an increase of £0.4 million, and mobile & content revenue was £2 million, a decrease of £1 million.

Broadcasting revenue for the quarter was £52.5 million, an increase of £15.2 million over the prior year quarter, primarily due to the new FAPL broadcasting rights agreement, two additional FAPL home games and one additional live broadcast, partially offset by non-participation in the UEFA Champions League.

Matchday revenue for the quarter was £38.6 million, an increase of £8.2 million, primarily due to playing three more home games across all competitions.

Total operating expenses for the quarter were £121.2 million, an increase of £19.4 million.

Employee benefit expenses for the quarter were £63.6 million, an increase of £7.9 million, primarily due to first team acquisitions.