Jim Ratcliffe Acquires 25% Ownership of Manchester United
Manchester United captures a major deal as British petrochemical tycoon, Sir Jim Ratcliffe, secures a significant 25% ownership in the renowned English Premier League football club
Sir Jim Ratcliffe, the British petrochemical billionaire, has acquired a 25% stake in the renowned English Premier League soccer club, Manchester United. The sale was officially confirmed by both Manchester United and INEOS, a London-based multinational conglomerate controlled by Ratcliffe.
INEOS has announced that Ratcliffe will be acquiring 25% of the club's Class B shares, along with a possible 25% of its publicly available Class A shares. This acquisition will also include an additional investment of $300 million, which is intended for future investments into Old Trafford, the club's historic stadium. The Glazer family, who currently own the majority of the club, and the Class A shareholders will be receiving the same price of $33.00 per share. At the close of Friday, Manchester United's shares closed at $19.81. For context, in May, Forbes valued Manchester United at $6 billion, positioning it just behind Real Madrid as the world's most valuable soccer club. Throughout 2023, shares of Manchester United had seen a decrease of nearly 13%.
The English Premier League still needs to approve the deal.
"We are pleased to have reached this agreement with Sir Jim Ratcliffe and INEOS," said Avram Glazer and Joel Glazer, the executive co-chairmen and directors of Manchester United, in a statement. "As part of the strategic review we announced in November 2022, we pledged to explore different options to improve Manchester United, with a priority on achieving success for our men's, women's, and Academy teams."
The declaration emphasized the shared goal of establishing a top-tier football operation that leverages the Club's numerous existing strengths, particularly its ongoing success off the field.
After more than a year of speculation, the Florida-based Glazer family, which has held ownership of the club since 2005 and also possesses the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers, has finally shown interest in entertaining offers. Several rounds of bidding took place, with Qatari investor Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani reportedly withdrawing his bid in October, as per multiple reports.
Manchester United has faced challenges in recent years under the ownership of the Glazer family. Since the departure of long-time manager Sir Alex Ferguson in 2013, the club has had four full-time managers and has not claimed a UEFA Champions League title since 2008 or a Premier League title since 2013.
Currently, Manchester United sits in eighth place in the Premier League table.
Ratcliffe, 71, hails from Failsworth, Lancashire, a part of Greater Manchester, and has identified himself as "a local boy and a lifelong fan" of Manchester United. With a net worth of $19.1 billion, Ratcliffe is considered one of Britain's wealthiest individuals, as per Bloomberg's billionaire index. Although his bid for the London club Chelsea failed, which sold for $5.3 billion in May 2022, he still has ownership of soccer clubs OGC Nice in France and FC Lausanne-Sport in Switzerland.
