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Ratcliffe injects £100m into Manchester United

Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s Ineos has agreed to inject $100mn into Manchester United, cementing the billionaire’s influence at the English football club.  The move completes the $300mn worth of funding into the company pledged by Ratcliffe when he agreed a year ago to become a co-owner alongside the six Glazer siblings who still have majority voting control.

 The $100mn, which will reinforce the club’s balance sheet, has been earmarked for infrastructure investment rather than signing players in the transfer market, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.  After the latest capital injection, Ineos will hold almost 29 per cent of Manchester United shares, according to people familiar with the matter. 

Ratcliffe has already put money towards improving the club’s training facilities, and he has wider ambitions of renovating Old Trafford or building a new stadium altogether. Under Ratcliffe, Man United has made redundancies and slashed other costs in order to strengthen its finances.

The Glazers, who also own the Tampa Bay Buccaneers NFL franchise, also handed Ratcliffe and Ineos a key role in turning around Man United’s fortunes on the pitch. Ratcliffe has pledged to return Man United to the top of domestic and European football.

But the club, which has failed to win the Premier League since legendary manager Sir Alex Ferguson retired in 2013, made a poor start to this season and sacked Dutch head coach Erik ten Hag just months after extending his contract. Ruben Amorim, who joined as head coach from Portuguese club Sporting Lisbon, is battling to help Man United climb from a lowly 13th position in the Premier League table.

The latest transactions mean that the club will formally join the Ineos family of sports investments, which include a third of the Mercedes Formula One car racing team, the Ineos Grenadiers cycling team, and French football club OGC Nice. The petrochemicals company, which has expanded into consumer products such as hygiene, sports, automotive and fashion, paid in cash for a mix of the club’s two share classes, which include the New York-listed A shares and the privately held B shares that carry superior voting rights.

Ratcliffe owns 62 per cent of Ineos. The remaining 38 per cent is equally divided between co-founders Andrew Currie and John Reece. About a year ago, Ratcliffe agreed to buy into Man United at $33 a share. However, he also negotiated to buy B shares from the Glazers, giving him ownership of a private class of stock with superior voting rights to the public A shares. 

New York-listed Man United A shares closed at $17.64 on Wednesday, down 9.5 per cent from a year ago. The club reported a net loss of £113mn on revenues of £661mn in the 12 months ended June 30. The club has not made an annual net profit since before the pandemic, which battered its revenues and exacerbated losses Ratcliffe puts his stamp on club.

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