Skip to main content

Qataris will not increase United offer

The Qatari group bidding for Manchester United will not increase their existing offer of £5 billion despite the threat posed by a new deal being tabled by Sir Jim Ratcliffe.

This week it emerged that the Glazers were considering Ratcliffe’s offer of £1.5 billion for a 25 per cent stake as part of what could be a staged takeover at Old Trafford. One insider close to the process has described the British billionaire’s proposal as “feasible”.

However, sources close to the Qatari group being led by Sheikh Jassim Bin Hamad al-Thani say that the news of Ratcliffe’s restructured bid — he had initially offered to buy the 67 per cent stake belonging to the Glazer family — amounts to another pressure tactic designed to make them increase their bid.

While the Glazers value United at about £6 billion, the Qataris remain convinced the price is too high and are standing by their offer of £5 billion for a 100 per cent purchase: not least because Erik ten Hag’s side are misfiring on the pitch, the debt stands at about £1 billion and the Old Trafford stadium and training ground remain in dire need of modernisation.

The new proposal from Ratcliffe is being met with some scepticism among certain well-placed observers who question whether a significant sum of money will be available for investment in the football club. Further to that, it is unclear how much influence Ratcliffe will enjoy if his stake is limited to 25 per cent.

Even so, the deal could yet be one the Glazers accept if it is the first step in Ratcliffe and his petrochemicals firm, Ineos, taking full control.

When Ratcliffe was initially bidding for the entire Glazer stake, his offer met the overall valuation of the American owners and it was for that reason that he was considered the favourite to purchase the Premier League club. Even now his offer for a reduced stake meets the Glazer valuation.

The revised deal also removes the threat of potential litigation. Some holders of the publicly traded A shares were preparing to launch a legal challenge if Ratcliffe limited his deal to the B shares — which carry more voting rights — owned by the Glazers. As it is, the new deal would involve Ratcliffe buying a mixture of A and B shares

 

 

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

Spurs CEO attacks luxury training base

The Tottenham Hotspur chief executive Vinai Venkatesham has issued a withering assessment of the way the club was run under Daniel Levy, likening the state-of-the-art training centre to a five-star hotel rather than a centre of high performance.  Venkatesham was appointed to his role in April 2025, having stepped down as chief executive at Arsenal the previous summer. However, he has said that some aspects of the club were “in a significantly worse state” than he expected.  “Our training centre is amazing, one of the best, if not the best in the world,” Venkatesham told BBC Sport. “But when you look around, it looks more like a five-star hotel than it does a performance environment. That will change over the summer. I think there are many areas where the club hasn’t got the right level of expertise.”  He explained that the football side of operations was the club’s main downfall when he arrived last year. [One Spurs fan wryly observed that it was like a water company sayi...
Post a Comment
Read more

Fulham requires big funding from owner

After lengthy delays, Fulham’s shiny, new Riverside Stand has finally opened, creating “a unique Thameside destination with first class facilities for supporters and partners on match days, as well as for the wider community year-round”. This ambitious project has increased Craven Cottage’s capacity by around 4,000 to 29,600, while it has also taken advantage of the club’s fantastic location and wealthy catchment area by including two Michelin star restaurants, a rooftop swimming pool, corporate hospitality and event space, all benefiting from views of the Thames. Chief executive Alistair Mackintosh observed, “Fulham is the sort of club that can have a business class or first class and have fans that turn left on a plane.” Indeed, there is also an exclusive members club – with a football season ticket as an optional extra. It’s fair to say that “the times they are a-changing”, as this is a long way from the traditional pie and a pint. However, in a world where clubs face the tw...
Post a Comment
Read more