2023-04-28
The Chairman of the Board of Directors of Qatar Islamic Bank (QIB) Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani and CEO of Ineos Jim Ratcliffe presented the third offer to English football club Manchester United on Friday.
In principle, they will be the final offerings and the Glazer family must now study the proposals and decide whether to finally spin off the entity or continue with it.
“We can confirm that Sheikh Jassim made his final offer,” a source close to the matter told AFP, minutes after 9:00 pm GMT.
According to sports information chain Sky Sports, this offer will be higher than 5,700 million euros ($6,330 million), a world record for this type of deal, although it will be far from the expectations of the Glazer’s owners. The family, which will cost about 7 thousand million euros (7,775 million dollars).
“We cannot discuss the details of the offer at this level,” the source close to AFP wrote of the exact amount offered.
And he stressed that “other than the club’s purchase number (money allocated to sellers), Sheikh Jassim’s offer also includes a project to invest a fixed amount directly in the club’s capital and infrastructure.”
The source said the club’s debt, which is close to 700 million euros ($775 million), will be paid in full.
According to Sky Sports, the other leading candidate for the buyout, Jim Ratcliffe, chief executive of petrochemicals group Ineos, has made a third bid to take control of the club, but not to take it outright.
A divided family? –
The Glazer family, which has been in charge of the English club for eighteen years, owns 69% of the capital. The remaining 31% is in the hands of institutional investors.
However, the Glazer brothers would be divided on the issue of selling. Jim Ratcliffe would be willing to leave 19% to brothers Joel and Avram Glazer, co-chairmen of the club, on the condition that he can ensure that he becomes the majority shareholder of the club.
The British businessman already controlled two football clubs, Nice in France and Lausanne in Switzerland. He had warned that he would not pay “crazy sums that you can regret later”.
The deadline for submitting the third show, after mid-February and the end of March, has been set by the American Glazer family at 9:00 PM GMT on Friday.
In addition to Sheikh Jassim and Jim Ratcliffe, investment funds appeared willing to seek a minority stake or ultimately help the Glazer retain control of the club and fund the infrastructure the club needed.
Manchester United currently sits fourth in the Premier League, effectively occupying the bottom spot within the Champions League region.
It was eliminated by Sevilla in the quarter-finals of the Europa League, but it is seeded for the FA Cup final, where it will face its neighbor Manchester City.
Last February, Manchester United had already won the English League Cup, and then beat Newcastle in the final.
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