Man Utd takeover: Sheikh Jassim committed to bid despite Sir Jim Ratcliffe considering buying minority stake
Sir Jim Ratcliffe's Ineos Sports could acquire a minority stake in Manchester United and leave the Glazer family in control 18 years after they bought it, Sky News learns; Ineos could spend in the region of £1.5bn if it was to acquire a quarter of United's shares
Monday 2 October 2023 21:56, UK
Sheikh Jassim still wants to complete a takeover of Manchester United and is committed to his bid, despite Sir Jim Ratcliffe considering acquiring a minority stake.
Qatari banker Sheikh Jassim and British industrialist Ratcliffe have made bids which value United at about £5bn, but the Glazers have been holding out for higher offers.
The Glazers announced a strategic review in November last year which they said could lead to a sale. United chief executive Richard Arnold confirmed in a staff meeting in September that the process was ongoing.
Sheikh Jassim is standing firm over his bid, but Ratcliffe, the petrochemicals billionaire, is contemplating buying a minority stake in Manchester United rather than seeking full control, in an effort to end a nearly 10 month-long process to resolve the club's future ownership.
Sky News has learnt that Sir Jim's Ineos Sports vehicle has proposed to the controlling Glazer family a deal that would see it acquiring chunks of both their shares and the stock publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange in equal proportion.
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That offer would entail making an offer at the same price for both sets of shares, with one suggestion on Monday evening being that Sir Jim could seek a roughly 25 per cent stake in the Red Devils as part of his latest proposal.
It would need to be pitched at a valuation that the Glazers would accept, implying that
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