Sir Jim Ratcliffe set to pay 100 per cent premium for Manchester United stake
Sir Jim Ratcliffe is close to adding Manchester United to his sporting portfolio with a minority investment that values the Premier League football club at £5.2bn.
The British billionaire owner of chemicals giant Ineos is poised to buy 25 per cent of United for £1.3bn, a 100 per cent premium on the share price.
Ratcliffe is the last bidder standing after Qatari Sheikh Jassim Bin Hamad Al Thani withdrew from the long-running race to invest in the 20-time English champions on Saturday.
The Greater Manchester-born 70-year-old’s offer could be formally accepted as soon as this week, with United’s board expected to meet in the coming days.
It comes 11 months after the Glazer family appointed US investment bank the Raine Group to explore selling some or all of their 69 per cent shareholding.
The structure of the deal remains undisclosed but it has been reported that Ratcliffe may take over the running of the football side of the club from the Glazers.
He has steadily built a sporting empire that includes football clubs Lausanne and Nice, a 33 per cent stake in Mercedes F1 and the Ineos Britannia sailing team.
Ratcliffe, who is estimated to be worth anything from £11bn to £30bn, has also owned the Ineos Grendiers cycling team since taking over the outfit then known as Team Sky in 2019.
He failed in a bid to buy Chelsea last year after the club was put up for sale when former owner Roman Abramovich was sanctioned by the UK.
But he entered the race for boyhood club United in January, having publicly signposted his interest at a sport business conference three months earlier.
“I’m a lifelong Manchester United fan. I was there in that most remarkable match in 1999 [Champions League final] in Barcelona, which is deeply etched in my mind,” he said.
“Manchester United is owned by the Glazer family. I met Joel and Avram, and they are the nicest people. They are gentlemen. And they don’t want to sell.
“If it had been for sale in the summer, we would probably have had a go following the Chelsea thing. But we can’t sit around hoping that one day Manchester United will become available.”
Weeks later, the Glazers announced they were exploring “strategic alternatives” for the club, effectively firing the starting pistol on a potential sale.
Sheikh Jassim, a banker and son of Qatar’s former prime minister, confirmed a bid for full control in February via his Nine Two Foundation.
Raine conducted several rounds of bidding in an attempt to achieve the Glazers’ £6.5bn asking price, but both Racliffe and Sheikh Jassim’s offers valued the club at nearer £5bn.
Other institutional investors expressed interest in acquiring minority stakes or providing finance to the Glazers, who bought United for £790m in a leveraged 2005 takeover.
The Florida-based family, who also own the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers, are widely unpopular with United supporters after draining more than £1bn in dividends and fees.