Sir Jim Ratcliffe‘s INEOS have put in a bid to buy Manchester United from the Glazer family, following the offer from Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad al-Thani. Sources close to the bid say Ratcliffe wants to put “Manchester back into Manchester United”.
Ratcliffe, a boyhood United fan from Failsworth, who was the Nou Camp in 1999, founded chemical company INEOS which generates sales of around £50bn and employs more than 26,000 people. INEOS already owns Ligue 1 side Nice, FC Lausanne in Switzerland and Racing Club Abidjan of the Ivory Coast. They also own the INEOS Grenadiers cycling team and have a stake in the Mercedes F1 team. He also tried to buy Chelsea last year before Todd Boehly became the successful bidder.
While details of the INEOS bid haven’t been confirmed, reports suggest that it would be the company borrowing to buy, rather than borrowing against the club as the Glazers did. This means no new debt would be added to the club but it doesn’t appear as though the debt will be wiped out, as it would with Sheikh Jassim’s bid.
There are concerns over the morality of INEOS criticism when in 2016 they imported the first ever shipment of shale gas (derived from fracking) from the US into the UK.
