Sheikh delivered the last word – Kommersant

The sale of one of the most famous English football clubs, Manchester United, appears to be in its final stages. Qatari Sheikh Jasim bin Hamad Al Thani has made the latest offer to Manchester City owners, the Glaser family, of £5.5bn for 100% of the club’s shares. An alternative option, proposed by Ineos owner Jim Ratcliffe, involves a phased purchase of the club. But at a higher price per share, due to which the overall assessment of the club can be much higher.

The process of changing the ownership of the English football club “Manchester United” seems to have entered a decisive stage. One of the two applicants for the purchase of the team, Qatari Sheikh Jasim bin Hamad Al-Thani, made what is called the last offer. Sheikh Jasim is willing to pay no more than £5.5bn for the club, according to The Guardian, up £500m from his previous offer. Of the said amount, £1 billion was proposed to be allocated to completely eliminate the debt of Manchester United (it currently stands at about £536 million), as well as to create a club development fund.

Thus, the owners of Manchester United, the Glazer family (the key figures in the club structure are the brothers Avram and Joel Glazer) will be able to receive about £4.5 billion for their asset. This is significantly less than the desire attributed to them by the British media to bail out for Manchester United » £6 billion. If such a sale happened, Manchester would top the list of the most expensive clubs in the world (we are talking about the actual sales of teams, and not about their estimated value). Now the rating is headed by the National Football League (NFL, American football) Washington Wizards, sold in April 2023 for $6.1 billion (£4.8 billion).

However, the option under which the Glazers can still get the £6 billion they are looking for does exist. Sheikh Jasim’s rival British billionaire, owner of the Ineos concern Jim Ratcliffe, who was considered the leader in the race for the right to acquire Manchester United until the last offer of the Qatari challenger, proposes a phased buyout option for the club. According to the Daily Mail, Jim Ratcliffe would like to buy just over 50% of the club’s shares in the first stage. He is also suggesting that the Glazer brothers keep their management positions at Manchester United for a period of two to four years. The fact is that about 31% of Manchester United’s shares are in free float (the club’s papers are listed on the New York Stock Exchange). The essence of the scheme proposed by Jim Ratcliffe is that he will buy a stake at a price that ensures the total capitalization of the club just at around £ 6 billion. At the same time, the Glazer family gets time to sell their remaining shares at a price that suits them .

For now, it all comes down to choosing members of the Glazer family. They could get £4.5bn straight away or £6bn in the (unobvious) future. There is, however, another option. American companies Elliott Investment Management and Carlyle Group are ready to provide investments in the development of the club while maintaining control over it from the Glazers.

Alexander Petrov