Manchester United reaches agreement for Sir Jim Ratcliffe to acquire 25% of the company

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The Athletic are reporting that Ratcliffe (who owns 60% of INEOS) will be joined by the INEOS Sporting Director in forming two thirds of a three person board in charge of our football operations. They are also reporting that the current INEOS Sport CEO is expected to be appointed our CEO. Both Brailsford and Blanc will also reportedly be joining the board.

Assuming that occurs, it would seem pretty absurd not to take that as INEOS being inextricably tied to the investment, whatever the mechanism used for purchase.
He’s appointing people he knows but it’s been reported before that monies wouldn’t come from Ineos (not saying that proves it) but he’s worth multi billions… he doesn’t need Ineos’s money
 
Now that he is a Class B shareholder, he could in theory, buy out individual Glazers (the ones that did want out) and the shares wouldn't revert to class A; surely? Pick them off one at a time until he has a majority controlling stake?
That's how I interpreted it. If the shares don't revert, he can go after the 4 other siblings who want out. Additionally, he can keep pumping further investments into the club, diluting everyone else's stakes in the process.
 
Announcing this on xmas eve when many employees of the club will be worried about their jobs (Im talking about non football staff here by the way). Its a shit time to announce this
100% this, there's some elements of the club that have remained in house which would normally be subcontracted to a separate company, I understand this was done originally for the kudos but the cynic in me suspects its remained this way as a cost cutting measure. I'd imagine Ineos will have been lobbied by companies already or already have ties to companies that will be eager to get on board. The recent food hygiene incident offers a good example, catering, maintenance, ticketing, security office staff I'd imagine pretty much everyone from Murtough to the carpark attendants will be viewing this with some caution. There are a few obnoxious parasites that should be public marched out of that place with rotten fruit thrown at them, but the vast majority of staff are good, loyal and I hope they benefit from any potential changes
 
Does it really mean anything? Glazers are still the overlords. Ineos/Ratcliffe is just some vassal.

This. It’s a minority investment that has bailed the Glazers out.

Man Utd is owned by the Glazers - it is very important to remember this amid the tsunami of PR guff designed to take pressure and responsibility off them.

It’s the ultimate best outcome for the Glazers - a very Happy Christmas for them indeed.
 
I called this deal turkeys voting for christmas so it’s funny this has come out when it has.

I’m waiting for all the, ‘this is a good deal cause he’ll be getting full control eventually’ brigade to perform their world class gymnastics on this one.

Clearly says ‘acquire up to 25%’, you’ve literally backed the Glazers staying in charge indefinitely.

Merry Christmas Glazers.
yep this
 
Good.

Now please bring some good football people as director of football and technical directors, and remove Murtough as soon as possible.

Let’s hope something changes for good.
That theoretically should be all we need. For all their faults we've spent money we've just spent it horribly. Get the right people in making the decisions and hopefully we can turn this around. It won't be over night by any stretch of the imagination but hopefully something changes.
 
This. It’s a minority investment that has bailed the Glazers out.

Man Utd is owned by the Glazers - it is very important to remember this amid the tsunami of PR guff designed to take pressure and responsibility off them.

It’s the ultimate best outcome for the Glazers - a very Happy Christmas for them indeed.
Absolutely. Played everyone perfectly, including us fans.
 
100% this, there's some elements of the club that have remained in house which would normally be subcontracted to a separate company, I understand this was done originally for the kudos but the cynic in me suspects its remained this way as a cost cutting measure. I'd imagine Ineos will have been lobbied by companies already or already have ties to companies that will be eager to get on board. The recent food hygiene incident offers a good example, catering, maintenance, ticketing, security office staff I'd imagine pretty much everyone from Murtough to the carpark attendants will be viewing this with some caution. There are a few obnoxious parasites that should be public marched out of that place with rotten fruit thrown at them, but the vast majority of staff are good, loyal and I hope they benefit from any potential changes
I don’t think Ratcliffe is spending hundreds of millions (with much more to follow) to cut 50 jobs and negotiate a 10% cut in the catering supplies to be honest. And I’m not sure it’s his call? .. he’ll have control over football side?
 
Is it safe to assume any activity in January, however little it may be, will be under instruction from Jim and those he sees as key to the footballing side of things such as JCB/Mitchell etc?

"Officially" they can't touch the club until it's ratified, but in what world does the club sign off on anything without consulting those in pending control of football operations?
 
nan: your mum told me you wanted a new owner for christmas and the man in the store said this was the one all the kids wanted.

me: yeah thanks, nan.
 
Good that we’ll theoretically have someone else in charge of running the club, which you would think couldn’t get any worse.

However, anything which enables the Glazers to stay on for the long term is a bad deal.
 
There's no pleasing some people.

We now have someone who will make wholesale changes to the sporting operations of the club (or structure, a word which keeps being thrown around)

He'll invest a significant amount of money into infrastructure.

Both are unobjectively positive things for the club.

It‘s like wanting a PS5 for Christmas but opening the wrapping paper and getting a PS4

Is it better than nothing? sure but ultimately deep down it’s a bit shit
 
It should be remembered that Ratcliffe will be the single biggest shareholder. In fact, if the Glazers are selling their shares equally (each of them selling 25% of what they own), Ratcliffe will basically own the same as Joel and Avram put together. The other four siblings have never shown any real interest in the club so could very well prefer someone coming in who will run things better, as that will inevitably put more money in their pockets. At which point Joel and Avram wouldn't have too much say in what happens (not sure how much Avram has been involved in decision making anyway, seeing as all the rumours have mostly just talked about Joel).

Also, there were rumours that some of the siblings preferred a full sale, so if that is the case then that's an avenue that Ratcliffe can use to increase his control in the not-too-distant future seeing as apparently he gets first dibs. Of course, that's reliant on the Glazer's selling equally now, rather than let's say the two lowest holders selling all of theirs while the other four continue to hold the same as they currently do.

I dunno if or when it'll be made public but surely the Glazers will be selling their shares from the ones who want out.

Avram and Joel will not be selling the same number of shares to Ratcliffe as Darcie and co.
 
No point talking about the Sheikh because he pulled out. He wasn't up for it. Had no gas in the tank.

Maybe he will change his mind and come back again in the future, but the Glazers will probably quote him 100 billion
 
Is it safe to assume any activity in January, however little it may be, will be under instruction from Jim and those he sees as key to the footballing side of things such as JCB/Mitchell etc?

"Officially" they can't touch the club until it's ratified, but in what world does the club sign off on anything without consulting those in pending control of football operations?

I can see us spend around 60m. Possibly guirassy and todibo
 
It’s not the outcome I wanted this time last year, but I still feel this is largely positive, because it comes with a remit of a change in footballing operations and investment into the infrastructure at the club, both are much needed. Ratcliffe is by no means winning the lottery, he is not a genius who is going to mastermind the change in fortunes of the club, but if he is able to appoint the right people who can run the sporting side of the club, then maybe he can make a success of this.
 
I'm not sure what Ineos can do, they can't pump money into the club for players. FFP wont let them.
As far as I can see, and unless anyone can say different we are still up shit creek without a paddle having to sell before we can buy, and the loss of European revenue this season and it's looking more like next season as well. puts us in even a bigger hole.
 
I'm not sure what Ineos can do, they can't pump money into the club for players. FFP wont let them.
As far as I can see, and unless anyone can say different we are still up shit creek without a paddle having to sell before we can buy, and the loss of European revenue this season and it's looking more like next season as well. puts us in even a bigger hole.
They can to an extent. I believe up to 90m? Which actually goes a pretty long way when you consider amortization.
 
I don’t think Ratcliffe is spending hundreds of millions (with much more to follow) to cut 50 jobs and negotiate a 10% cut in the catering supplies to be honest. And I’m not sure it’s his call? .. he’ll have control over football side?
I honestly don't know, i'm speculating, but to use the food hygiene incident as an example, the Glazers are indirectly responsible for this but if we know one thing about them it's that don't care, standards don't seem to bother them, I have a feeling Ratcliffe/Ineos will have higher standards, I can't stress how bad a 1/5 food rating is for a brand of this size, they charge upto £2000 per head in some suites depending on the fixture. Millions have been spent on upgrading suites, to do so with any less than a 5 rating is not an option. Bringing in a private company that specialises in stadiums such as Compass will go a long way to protecting them from this happening again.
 
They can to an extent. I believe up to 90m? Which actually goes a pretty long way when you consider amortization.
Kieran Maguire said on SSN if the takeover is approved by the end of January he will be able to buy more shares which can be used to fund transfers.
 
Anything that takes the Glazer chuckle brothers away from anything football related is a good thing. Numpties making a balls of things, I dont think Sir Jim could do any worse then those clowns.
 
Kieran Maguire said on SSN if the takeover is approved by the end of January he will be able to buy more shares which can be used to fund transfers.
Unless they already have specific targets in mind (which they might since they've had a long time for due diligence), I reckon they'll wait until summer. No more unplanned panic buys hopefully.
 
I dunno if or when it'll be made public but surely the Glazers will be selling their shares from the ones who want out.

Avram and Joel will not be selling the same number of shares to Ratcliffe as Darcie and co.
Not sure about that. Avram had already sold some of his shares previously, and is only the fourth highest of the siblings. If he's sold previously no reason to think he wouldn't sell again. I expect they all probably sold some, but it'll be interesting to find out what the percentages were. I presume if it was one or two of them completely exiting (or close to it) then we'll hear about it, whereas if we hear no details it was likely an equal (or close to it) amount.

Before selling to Ratcliffe
Joel - 19.11% voting power
Darcie - 18.15%
Bryan - 17.23%
Avram - 14.38%
Kevin - 13.77%
Edward - 12.99%
 
Unless they already have specific targets in mind (which they might since they've had a long time for due diligence), I reckon they'll wait until summer. No more unplanned panic buys hopefully.
Probably but he was just stating that it was possible.
 
So how much of the club will SJR actually own? The statement says it will be up to 25% of the Class A shares and 25% of the Class B shares but what does that equate to overall?

The statement also says that the Glazers and the other Class A share holders will recieve $33 per share so I guess that means its not only part of the Glazers shares he is buying.
 
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