Skip to main content

Has Ratcliffe moved ahead in United bid battle?

Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Ineos may have moved ahead in the battle to buy Manchester United after valuing the club higher than their main Qatari rivals.

Although Ratcliffe is seeking to buy only the 69 per cent stake that belongs to the Glazers — and in one proposal is open to Joel and Avram Glazer retaining a stake if he still has full control of the club — it is understood that the offer he submitted before Friday’s 10pm deadline for the third and final bids equates to more than that tabled by the group led by Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad al-Thani, and that Ineos is the only bidder to have valued the club higher than £5 billion.

On Friday evening, sources close to the Qataris said that Sheikh Jassim’s offer was marginally in excess of £5 billion, with a pledge to provide additional investment in the club’s infrastructure as well as playing staff. However, insiders with knowledge of the process have queried that value and suggested that the Qataris have not submitted an offer of additional funds on top of their bid.

At this stage three American investment firms — namely Elliott Management, The Carlyle Group and Ares Management — should not be discounted even if they are only offering to buy a minority stake that would enable the Glazers to refurbish Old Trafford and the club’s training ground.

It is anticipated that a preferred bidder will be granted a period of exclusivity in the next ten days.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

It's no deal say Spurs insiders over Taiwanese takeover

Senior figures at Tottenham Hotspur insisted on Friday that they had not been informed of any deal to sell Daniel Levy’s stake in the club. A business group, Eight Sports Capital — which is said to include a billionaire Taiwanese financier — claimed that it had an agreement in place to buy a 24.99 per cent stake in ENIC, the club’s majority owners, from Levy, who owns 29.88 per cent. The Times has been told Ng Wing Fai and Brooklyn Earick form part of the group, having both been linked previously to potential takeovers of the Premier League club. The Taiwanese businessman, Richard Tsai, is also said to be part of the consortium. He is reportedly worth £7 billion.  Last year Earick, the former DJ and tech entrepreneur, was part of an attempted £4.5 billion takeover, which was “unequivocally rejected” by Spurs.  An ENIC spokesperson said: “We can confirm that neither ENIC nor THFC are aware of any sale by Daniel Levy’s Family Trust of its minority stake in ENIC, THFC’...
Post a Comment
Read more

Reports about Charlton sale exaggerated

Reports have appeared in The Guardian and elsewhere that Charlton has been put up for sale. Richard Cawley is an authoritative local journalist who runs a South London Sport substack site.  He reached out to the club yesterday evening to ask for comment on The Guardian’s article. Early indications from the club have been that nothing has changed since the story about them seeking investment, except that it is now a different company doing it. Charlton have since managed to consolidate their place in the Championship, avoiding an instant return to League One, with their women’s side promoted to the WSL, returning to the top flight for the first time since 2007, although staying there is likely to be costly. It would be counter-intuitive for owners Global Football Partners not to progress the club when looking for investment, that the focus remains on driving it forward, that their spend this summer is in line with long-term planning and will see an increase in wages spent on players...
Post a Comment
Read more

Levy's anomalous status at Spurs

It is now nearly a year since Daniel Levy was dismissed as Tottenham Hotspur chairman by the Lewis family.  It has been 12 months of dramatic twists and turns, with Spurs avoiding relegation on the final day of the Premier League season, and then spending unprecedented sums this summer to try to make sure such a scare never happens again. But while most fans focus on the football — and a dubbing by Brentford   — another set of issues have been bubbling away separately. These relate to Levy’s continued position as a minority shareholder in the club. This has been in the news for much of this summer, even as we approach the first anniversary of Levy’s dismissal, and specifically this month, after he missed the opportunity last week to participate in the Lewis family’s latest equity injection into the club. On Thursday morning the club confirmed that his shareholding has been diluted, down by roughly two per cent, after the creation of new ENIC shares. Levy’s dism...
Post a Comment
Read more