Jim Ratcliffe: petrochemical billionaire turned Man Utd bidder

One of Britain’s wealthiest people, Jim Ratcliffe, has confirmed he is in the running to buy Manchester United Football Club.

The billionaire head of the chemicals company Ineos confirmed via his firm that they had “formally put ourselves into the process” to take over from United’s current owners, the Glazer family.

The news came just a day after the UK’s charity regulator announced it was reviewing The Jim Ratcliffe Foundation over a £15m donation he made “to build a luxury clubhouse at a ski resort used by the billionaire”, said The Times. The paper added that the foundation “has received £7.4m in Gift Aid from the British tax authorities” since it was set up to fund a new ski clubhouse in Courchevel in the French Alps, and to support other charitable endeavours.

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Who is Jim Ratcliffe?

Ratcliffe was a “boyhood fan of United” wrote the BBC, having been born in Failsworth, Greater Manchester in 1952 before moving to Yorkshire aged ten. “Being around Manchester when I was growing up, the manufacturing situation sort of seeps into your consciousness, I suppose,” Ratcliffe told the Manchester Evening News in 2015, adding that there’s “a bit of the Industrial Revolution in my DNA”.

He studied at the University of Birmingham for his chemical engineering degree and gained his Masters in finance at the London Business School. Ratcliffe worked at oil giant Esso and chemical company Courtaulds in the early part of his career, then making a “career-changing step into the world of private equity” in 1989.

After working at Advent International, where he learned the “cut and thrust of doing deals”, Ratcliffe bought BP’s chemicals division and co-founded his own company Inspec in 1992. He “mortgaged his house and put all his money into the deal”, said the Financial Times (FT).

In 1998 he left to found Ineos, “where his fortunes really flew”, said The Mirror. The company quickly bought Inspec’s raw chemical plant in Antwerp, Belgium. Ineos “made more than 20 acquisitions” in its first ten years as it grew rapidly, and now produces “raw materials for products that touch nearly all aspects of everyday life”, said the FT, “from bottle caps and toothpaste to computers and cars”.

Ratcliffe has “been called ‘secretive’ and ‘reclusive’”, the paper said, and was only “lured out of the shadows” after a union dispute with his Grangemouth plant in 2014. Tom Crotty, an Ineos director, had previously told the FT that the image that emerged of Ratcliffe from the dispute, as a cut-throat businessman, was wrong: “I don’t think ruthless is a word I’d use to describe Jim at all – he’s very thoughtful and loyal. He gives enormous loyalty but he expects it in return.”

According to Forbes, his amassed wealth has reached around £13bn with a personal worth of around £6bn thanks to Ineo becoming “one of the UK shale sector’s largest players”. The company’s 600ft Dragon Ships “were the first to transport US shale gas into Europe”, the magazine added. In 2020, Ratcliffe received criticism for moving his tax domicile from his residence in Hampshire to his Monaco home, which was set to “save him £4bn in tax payments”, said The Guardian.

What is happening with his Man Utd bid?

Ratcliffe is “no stranger to big sporting investments” and has “made no secret of the fact he would be interested in buying United” in the past year, said Sky Sports News.

The 70-year-old has invested much of his money in sports and already owns two football teams, OGC Nice in France and FC Lausanne-Sport in Switzerland. He also owns one of professional cycling’s most successful teams, Team Ineos (formerly Team Sky), and has invested money in sailing, Formula One, running and rugby.

Ineos “are the first to throw their hat into the ring” to buy United, which could command a “price beyond £6 billion” to wrestle it from Joel and Avram Glazer, said The Telegraph. But it “remains to be seen how Ratcliffe and Ineos would pay for the club”, said the paper, with Ineos’s financial strength likely to face “fierce competition in the Middle East, US and Asia”, making identifying a likely buyer “as uncertain as ever”.

The “big unanswered question”, added The Telegraph, is “whether the Glazers will be happy with the offers”. A potential investor told the paper that a deal could still not go ahead as the Glazer siblings “may end up at odds about what to do with the club”, despite “fans’ desperation for new ownership”. However, a total takeover remains “marginally the most likely option”.