Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s bid to buy 25% of Manchester United is a few weeks from potentially being concluded, with Thursday’s meeting of the 12-strong board not due to rule on anything definitive regarding his £1.3bn offer.
Although there may be a vote on some element relating to Ratcliffe’s proposal, it is understood an announcement is not imminent. Those in attendance are expected to be the six Glazer siblings, who have a combined 69% stake, plus Cliff Baty, the chief financial officer, Patrick Stewart, the chief legal officer and general counsel, and three independent directors, Robert Leitão, Manu Sawhney and John Hooks.
Ratcliffe’s offer values United at £5.2bn at a time when the club is actually valued at about $3.2bn (£2.63bn), and this reflects his wish to gain sporting control. If this occurs it would throw into doubt the future of John Murtough, the football director, and Erik ten Hag, the manager.
Ratcliffe, the owner of Ineos, is the only publicly declared bidder after Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad al-Thani informed the Glazers that he had withdrawn his 100% offer of more than £5bn for 100% the club. Part of Ratcliffe’s plans include raising the capacity of Old Trafford to 90,000. Sheikh Jassim was also intent on drawing up plans to redevelop the stadium and wanted to revamp United’s Carrington training base.
United announced on Wednesday that a bespoke first-team facility for their women’s team and associated academy was fully operational at Carrington.
