Jim Ratcliffe gets access to Manchester United. PDO
British billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe has agreed to buy a quarter of Manchester United for about 1.3 billion dollars, or 1.18 billion euros.
Ratcliffe’s Ineos Group company takes over football operations.
The 71-year-old businessman also offers 300 million dollars, or about 272 million euros, for future investments in the club’s Old Trafford stadium.
The Glazer family, who own Manchester United, announced 13 months ago that they were considering selling the club. The Glazers bought the football giants for £790 million in 2005, but have received plenty of criticism from fans.
With the upcoming deal, the Glazer family will still retain the majority of the club, which has not won the Premier League once since 2013.
– Our common goal is clear: we all want to see Manchester United where it should be, i.e. at the top of England, Europe and the world, Ratcliffe stated after the purchase announcement.
Mass Commander
Ratcliffe is the son of a carpenter, born in Failsworth, Greater Manchester in 1952.
The man has said that he is a big fan of Manchester United, but last year he tried to buy Chelsea. However, Ratcliffe was unsuccessful in his attempt.
According to the Sunday Times Rich List, Ratcliffe is the second richest person in the United Kingdom, with a fortune worth just under €35 billion.
The financial magazine Forbes, on the other hand, estimates the value of Ratcliffe’s assets to be “only” slightly more than 18 billion euros.
In any case, the man made his fortune with the help of the petrochemical company Ineos. Ratcliffe founded the company, which today consists of 20 separate business units.
Ineos has 194 offices in 29 countries, and its turnover is just under 60 billion euros. It employs more than 26,000 people.
Ineos’ raw materials are used, for example, in the packaging of medicines, hygiene products and foodstuffs, as well as in mobile phones and furniture.
Ineos already owns Nice, which plays in the French premier league, and Lausanne, Switzerland. Ineos is also a prominent sponsor of the F1 team Mercedes.
Source: BBC