Read the Manchester United sale farce in one article: 7 billion luxury purchase + 1.5 billion investment rejected Red Devil sky dark again?
On October 15, Beijing time, Jassim's $7 billion acquisition of Manchester United was rejected and has withdrawn, and Ratcliffe is expected to acquire 25% of Manchester United's shares first.
Glazer was interested in selling, and the two buyers competed
In 2005, Glazer Sr. bought Manchester United for £790 million through a leveraged deal and left the club in huge debt, and to this day, Manchester United still loses £320 million before tax and pays up to £900 million in interest to banks.
In November 2022, the Glazer family announced that they were considering selling Manchester United, the first time they had gone away from Manchester United in their 17-year history. At that time, they were willing to accept a 100% buyout of the club or a partial sale, and the American commercial bank Rennes Group was responsible for the sale.
Only two buyers actually made offers, both close to £5 billion. Jassim's Qatari consortium officially announced its intention to buy Manchester United in February 2023, and what they wanted was a 100% full acquisition, but it did not reach the Glazer family's psychological price of £6 billion.
Britain's richest man, Sir Ratcliffe, has an acceptable buy-in of a stake in Manchester United, initially 70%, and its share has since declined.
However, after several rounds of negotiations, nearly a year later, the Manchester United boss still has not accepted any offer, and has not even been said to sell, and at one point it was reported that they intended to sell the club again by 2025.
This is mainly because of the increase in Premier League broadcast revenue, the restructuring of the Champions League and other factors, the Glazer family believes that Manchester United's value should be greater, so the psychological price has been raised to 10 billion pounds! But in fact, Manchester United's market valuation is only $3.5 billion.
$7 billion was rejected, and Jassim withdrew
Born in 1982, Jassim became the head of Qatar Islamic Bank, with total assets of £42 billion, at the age of 23. His father was a well-known prime minister of Qatar and chairman of the Qatar Investment Group.
Jassim claims to have been in love with Manchester United since he was 10 years old, and his '92 Foundation is named after the famous Manchester United "Class of 92", and he once refused to buy Chelsea for it.
To get his hands on the beloved club, Jassim's final offer was $7 billion in cash, clearing all old debt, which was also zero new debt, and buying 100 per cent of Manchester United's stake. It also intends to invest $1.5 billion in new players, new stadium plans, new training facilities, urban and community renovation programs, and more.
$7 billion is enough to set a new record for a sports club acquisition of £5 billion, and a record for a football club acquisition of £4.4 billion for Chelsea. However, the Glazer family is still too greedy and still not satisfied, and in desperation, Jassim can only withdraw.
According to sources close to Jassim, Jassim was saddened to exit the takeover, thinking he could be the "dream boss" of the Manchester United club.
Lajue acquires 25% stake for 1.3 billion
Sir Ratcliffe, 71 years old, is the owner of the Ineos Group, the famous "chemical king" in the UK, who was once the richest man in the UK for a long time, and was later squeezed out, but in 2022, he ranked 111th on the Forbes list of the world's richest people with a total asset of $16.3 billion and regained the throne of the richest man in the UK.
He claims to have been a Manchester United fan since he was a child and watched the 1999 Champions League final at Camp Nou. He also has experience in sports management, buying Ligue 1 club Nice for 110 million euros in 2019 and runs the famous cycling team, Ineos Racing.
Ratcliffe's willingness to partially buy a stake in Manchester United is the main reason for his advantage. He is expected to pay £1.3bn to buy a 25 per cent stake in the club, with the agreement expected to be approved at a board meeting this week.
In addition, Ratcliffe hopes that after the initial acquisition of 25% of the shares, he will be able to further acquire control of Manchester United's sports side, as well as the future major ownership of Manchester United, and eventually become the club's largest shareholder or even 100% owner.
However, Manchester United fans are generally not happy with this, they are not averse to Sir Ratcliffe, who is more acceptable to many than Jassim, and the main objection is that the Glazer family remains in the club rather than leaving completely.