Man Utd takeover – news: Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Ineos submit improved bid for club

Sir Jim Ratcliffe is reportedly considering a number of other financial backers to help him beat Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad al-Thani in the Manchester United takeover race.

The Qatari banker is the current frontrunner to complete a takeover of the club though Ratcliffe seeks to bring in other parties to bolster his position following an extension to Wednesday’s 9pm soft deadline.

The Daily Mail reports that the petrochemical billionaire interest in other parties is to try and increase the scope of his bid with second bids likely to surpass the £5bn mark.

Although neither Sheikh Jassim nor Sir Jim Ratcliffe is thought to have surpassed £5bn with their initial bids, both are expected to get closer to the mark second time around - after they were granted an extension to the initial deadline of 9pm yesterday.

However, the two bids were for different stakes of ownership and brought different options to the table for Manchester United as a football club.

Sheikh Jassim wants to complete a full takeover of United, meaning he would buy the Glazer family’s 69 per cent and then purchase the remaining 31 per cent, which is made up of smaller investors. This could take some time as he would have to contact and negotiate with each investor to buy out their shares.

The Qatari banker has also made several pledges to invest in specific areas of the club - such as renovating the stadium - leaving United in debt following the cash purchase.

Ratcliffe’s bid is only for the Glazers’ 69 per cent and a majority shareholder stake. At this stage he is not offering to buy out the remaining shareholders.

He would have to borrow money to finance any takeover and his company INEOS has not committed to paying off the club’s debt, which sits at £656 million.

Those close to his bid are saying that no new debt will be loaded onto the club but it remains to be seen if Ratcliffe would pay off the debt over time.

Qatar’s Sheikh Jassim Bin Hamad Al Thani will make a world-record bid for Manchester United. The current record is £3.75bn for a sports team.

The Walton-Penner Family Ownership Group stumped up the cash for the Denver Broncos last summer.

Sky Sports say that the figure will be somewhere between £4-6 billion but do not know whether that will be enough to convince the Glazer family to sell the club.

Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al-Thani will reportedly offer £5.5bn to buy United in an effort to knock Sir Jim Ratcliffe out of the race.

The Mirror claims that while Ratcliffe is understood to have increased his bid for United, he is not thought to have gone as high as £5.5bn, which could see the Qataris secure the sale.

Both bidders are expected to break the current world record for a sports team which stands at £3.75bn paid for the Denver Broncos last year.

Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s INEOS group will submit an improved bid for Manchester United by tonight’s deadline, The Independent understands.

Bidders for Manchester United has until 9pm yesterday to submit their second offers for the club, in what was a crucial stage of the takeover process.

The Independent has reported that Qatari banker Sheikh Jassim Bin Hamad Al Thani is also prepared to up his bid for the Old Trafford club.

Both parties - which are the only groups to publicly declare their interest - visited Manchester United for meetings last week and asked for extensions to yesterday’s deadline.

Bids will be handled by the Raine group, but it is understood the Glazer family are split over whether they want to sell the club or retain minority ownership.

Finnish businessman Thomas Zilliacus has entered the race to buy Manchester United. He has previous experience of owning a football club in Finland, though that was in the 1980s.

The deadline for second bids passed yesterday, though it is believed that deadline has been extended according to the wishes of both Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Qatar’s Sheikh Jassim Bin Hamad Al Thani who are the frontrunners in the race.

Zilliacus’ net worth is not publicly known, though he is not thought to be worth as much as British billionaire Ratcliffe or have the available money that Qatari banker Al Thani does.

Here is his statement in full: ”Any sport club ultimately should belong to its fans. The current development, where billionaire sheiks and oligarks take over clubs and control them as their personal playgrounds is not a healthy trend.

“The current market value of the club is just under 3.9 billion USD. That means that if every one of the fans of the club would join in buying the club, the total sum per fan would amount to less than 6 dollars. My bid is built on equality with the fans.

“My group will finance half of the sum needed to take over the club, and will ask the fans, through a new company that is being set up for this specific purpose, to participate for the other half. If every fan joins it means less than 3 dollars per fan.

“Each fan who joins will have access to an app which the fan, from anywhere in the world, can use to participate and cast his vote when deciding on footballing matters relating to the club. No decisions will be taken that are not supported by a majority of the fan base.

“Manchester United should not only be the best football club in the world, it should also be the leading club in the world in working to stop abuse, racism and hate speech in social media and on sports grounds.

“Should we be successful in our bid we will ensure that Manchester United, the best football club in the world, will operate on a foundation of respect, equality, dignity, diversity, racial harmony and democracy, and with its global fan base included and involved in all decisions.”

As reported by The Independent this week, Qatar has increased their offer for Manchester United

A consideration that weighed over the entire process is whether the Gulf state would ultimately put up a bid that “blows everyone out of the water”.

There was some surprise that hasn’t been the strategy from the start, given that it would have been very easy for Qatar to go to the Glazers and say they would pay the necessary amount before it all got under way. Some industry figures believe that is down to not playing their hand so early.

Others, somewhat connected to that, believe it is part of a new strategy from the state to illustrate these are proper business investments.

“They will try to pay the right price,” one source said, “but they are adamant they won’t overpay.”

Bids will be handled by the Raine group, but it is understood the Glazer family are split over whether they want to sell the club or retain minority ownership.

While the Qatar and INEOS bids should be on the table after today’s extended deadline, a third option would be raising funds through minority investors for renewed investment into the club.

The Glazers would want a record £6bn for the club if they decide to sell - a fee The Independent understands the Qatar group are prepared to match.

INEOS have the funds to compete with the Qatar bid but it has been reported Ratcliffe has held concerns over the price rising too high.

According to reports from last night, there were up to eight bids submitted by Wednesday’s initial 9pm deadline but not, apparently, the Qatari or INEOS offers.

No one saw last night’s dramatic developments coming, though, and there are set to be plenty more today and in the coming days.