Man United co-owner Ratcliffe ‘loses quarter of total wealth’

Manchester United co-owner, Sir Jim Ratcliffe has seen his wealth fall by £6.473bn – more than a quarter of his fortune – in the last year, according to the latest Sunday Times Rich List, external.

The 72-year-old’s wealth has declined from £23.519bn to £17.046bn in the past 12 months.

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He has slipped from fourth to seventh on the annual list of the UK’s 350 richest people.

Ratcliffe’s Ineos Group bought a 27.7% stake in United in February 2024 in a deal worth about £1.25bn ($1.6bn) that saw Ineos take control of football operations.

The British billionaire’s time at Old Trafford has drawn criticism after United raised ticket prices and made two rounds of redundancies in a bid to improve the club’s finances.

Ratcliffe defended some of United’s financial cost-cutting measures in a wide-ranging BBC interview in March in which he said the club would have “run out of cash by the end of this year” had he not made “unpopular” decisions.

However, in March United unveiled ambitious plans to build an “iconic” new £2bn, 100,000-seater stadium close to Old Trafford.

Ratcliffe has said that financial pressures on British petrochemical firm Ineos would not impact Manchester United.

Ineos walked away early from its sponsorship deal with New Zealand Rugby in February, while it also parted ways with four-time Olympic champion Ben Ainslie earlier this year after backing the Britannia America’s Cup sailing team since 2018.

The company has blamed “cost-saving measures” across its business, citing the struggling chemicals industry in Europe because of “high energy taxes and extreme carbon taxes”, along with “the deindustrialisation of Europe”.

When asked about Ineos’ financial issues, Ratcliffe told BBC in March: “Ineos is in a good place today but not in as good a place as it was three or four years ago. Europe has become a very difficult place to do business for industrial companies because energy prices now in Europe are five times America, which is where a lot of our competition is.”

Sitting 16th in the Premier League with two games remaining, United’s hopes for silverware and European football next term rest on their encounter with Tottenham in the Europa League final on Wednesday, the winner securing a place in the Champions League.

(BBC Sport)