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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