Manchester United co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe
Manchester United co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe (Image: Plumb Images/Leicester City FC via Getty Images)
Manchester United minority owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe this week transferred the final tranche of the $300m investment promised at the time the deal with the Glazer family was struck at the turn of the year.
The additional $100m (£79.4m) takes the ownership stake in the club by Ratcliffe, through his Ineos firm, to 28.8%. As part of the transaction, Ratcliffe’s personally held shares have been transferred over to Ineos via Trawlers Limited, the entity that acquired the shareholding from the Glazers, although it is he that remains in control of that investment, with the move largely financial housekeeping.
But what does such a financial move mean for Manchester United so close to the January transfer window opening?
Well, for starters, the influx of capital won’t be used to supplement transfer incomings, the cost-cutting measures that Ineos embarked upon earlier this year to make savings were done with a longer-term view over improving the club’s financial position.
Ratcliffe’s plan since he arrived at Old Trafford has been to end the era of excess and bring the business costs down against a backdrop of what has largely been competitive failure in the post Sir Alex Ferguson era. Some of the decisions have been deeply unpopular, such as the 250-plus redundancies earlier this year, and while revenues remain strong the club is still losing vast amounts of money, the 2023/24 financial year showing a post-tax loss of £113.2m.
Ratcliffe will not have wanted to see all of his pledged investment swallowed up in losses, which it would have been had it all arrived in one tranche, instead the plan is to utilise it for infrastructure development that can add value to the club and what it does.
While the temptation will be to think that such a move so close to the window opening seems more than a coincidence, the reality is that won’t be the way that Manchester United work under Ratcliffe and Ineos, with the British billionaire handed football strategy oversight as part of his deal with the Glazers.
Stemming the losses and improving the balance sheet are close to the top of the agenda for Ratcliffe, but he also knows the importance of competitive success driving the financial turnaround, but that will have to be done with less resource available to current boss Ruben Amorim than afforded to his predecessors.
Having made efforts to address costs and create revenue growth, Ratcliffe and Ineos will feel that additional capital can now be better put to work.
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