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Ratcliffe closer to United deal

Sir Jim Ratcliffe has moved a significant step closer to securing Manchester United, with the Glazers and their New York bankers ready to discuss details of a sale with the British petrochemicals billionaire.

Sources close to the deal have indicated that the Glazers and The Raine Group are now willing to enter final talks with Ratcliffe and his team at Ineos to thrash out the world-record deal.

Ratcliffe moved ahead in the contest with a Qatari group, fronted by Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad al-Thani, and other rival bidders when his final offer represented the highest valuation — it could reach as much as £6 billion — for the Premier League club.

Insiders believe that valuation, and Ratcliffe’s willingness to agree a deal that enables Joel and Avram Glazer to retain a 20 per cent stake in the club has proved a significant factor. The Qataris’ third and final offer for a 100 per cent buy-out came in below £5 billion, despite claims to the contrary.

Known to have seriously undermined the Qatar bid is the collapse of Credit Suisse in March, which is understood to have cost Qatar’s Investment Authority billions as the second-biggest shareholder and not helped the case of Sheikh Jassim, the bid leader, who had close links with the failed Swiss bank.

The deal is complicated by the split between B-shares, which carry powerful voting rights, and the A-shares on the New York Stock Exchange, and it is likely that more talks will be needed to thrash out the exact terms of the deal, which could take a number of weeks.

Given the animosity between the Glazers and United’s supporters, the prospect of a continuing connection with the present owners was not met with a great deal of enthusiasm by fan groups.

But any deal would almost certainly conclude with Ratcliffe purchasing the stake retained by Joel and Avram over two possible phases in the next two to four years.

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