Premier League side Manchester United announced on Sunday that they had come to terms with Jim Ratcliffe on the sale of a minority stake in the club.
The INEOS petrochemical owner will invest $200M into the club upon completion of the deal and an additional $100M by the end of 2024 to help complete renovations to Old Trafford Stadium. In total, the deal will be worth roughly $1.6B, with Ratcliffe assuming up to a 25% stake in the club.
While the deal is still pending approval from the Premier League, insiders believe the review will merely be a formality at this point, following a nearly year long sales process. American owners, the Glazer family, have been gauging interest for their controlling share of the club for months now, with Ratcliffe’s group originally attempting to purchase the family’s entire 69% share, before settling on the smaller figure.
“As a local boy and a lifelong supporter of the club, I am very pleased that we have been able to agree a deal with the Manchester United Board that delegates us management responsibility of the football operations of the club,” Ratcliffe said in a prepared statement.
“Whilst the commercial success of the club has ensured there have always been available funds to win trophies at the highest level, this potential has not been fully unlocked in recent times. We will bring the global knowledge, expertise and talent from the wider INEOS Sport group to help drive further improvement at the club, while also providing funds intended to enable future investment into Old Trafford.”
Avram & Joel Glazer responded in kind with a statement of their own which read
“Sir Jim and INEOS bring a wealth of commercial experience as well as significant financial commitment into the club. And, through INEOS Sport, Manchester United will have access to seasoned high-performance professionals, experienced in creating and leading elite teams from both inside and outside the game.”
“Manchester United has talented people right across the club and our desire is to always improve at every level to help bring our great fans more success in the future.”
Other interested parties included Qatari financier Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani, but he ultimately bowed out after it became evident that a full scale takeover of the club wasn’t in the cards.
Following a 2-0 loss to West Ham yesterday, Manchester United are next in action against Aston Villa on Tuesday, December 26th at 3pm ET.
-Kyle Skinner
Twitter: @JKyleSkinner
Photo: Andre Zahn. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Germany license.