BREAKING: Britain’s richest man Sir Jim Ratcliffe to bid for Manchester United
Sir Jim Ratcliffe ‘will bid’ for Manchester United after the Glazer family formally put the club on the market.
The 70-year-old, one of Britain’s richest men, is the CEO of Ineos Group Ltd and has a net worth of a staggering £10.2 billion, per Forbes.
The business mogul, who’s a Man United fan, already owns the cycling team Ineos Grenadiers, Ligue 1 side Nice, who he took over in 2019, and Swiss Super League club FC Lausanne-Sport.
Ratcliffe claims to have supported the Red Devils since boyhood and attended the famous Champions League final triumph over Bayern Munich in 1999.
He had been the first billionaire to express an interest in buying the Old Trafford club when rumours first surfaced of a potential sale last summer.
Ratcliffe will now table a fresh approach, but the report states that he’s wary about overpaying as insiders suggest the Glazers are looking for a price in excess of £5 billion, according to The Telegraph.
Raine Group, who are brokering the deal, are expected to push for a price beyond the club’s natural value.
Ratcliffe, born in Oldham, has experience dealing with Raine after his pursuit of Chelsea.
He failed with a bid to purchase Chelsea earlier this year after Roman Abramovich put the Stamford Bridge outfit up for sale.
When asked why he wasn’t looking to buy his boyhood team, he replied Man United is ‘not for sale’
Speaking in October, Ratcliffe said that his Ineo group would have been interested in buying Man United should it come up for sale.
“I met with Joel and Avram, and they are the nicest people, and they don’t want to sell it, “he said. “If it had been for sale in the summer, yes, we would probably have had a go, following on from the Chelsea thing.
“But we can’t sit around hoping one day Manchester United will become available.”
Will Ratcliffe successfully purchase Man United? Watch this space.
