Ineos Investment in Manchester United

In February 2024, Sir Jim Ratcliffe completed his acquisition of a minority stake in Manchester United from the Glazer family. The Glazers had owned the club since 2005, having taken over through a leveraged buyout that loaded huge debts onto United itself. Years of poor results, fan protests and the weight of that debt eventually pushed them into putting the club up for sale.

Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Qatari businessman Sheikh Jassim Al Thani were the two main contenders for a full buyout. Sheikh Jassim eventually withdrew, wanting 100% of the club but not willing to pay the Glazers' valuation of £6 billion, formally withdrawing in October 2023. The Glazers instead accepted Ratcliffe's offer of $33 per share for a 25% stake as well as a $300 million capital injection into the club, coming up to around $1.65 billion in total. The Glazers maintained majority control, still owning around half the club but leaving the running of football operations to Ratcliffe. Growing up supporting United, Ratcliffe said his focus would be rebuilding the football side and investing in the club's ageing facilities.

Manchester United is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and has two classes of shares: Class A, held by the public, and Class B held by the Glazers, Class B carrying stronger voting rights. Acquiring both required two separate legal mechanisms. The Class B shares could not be transferred without changing the company's Articles of Association, which itself needed shareholder approval. This is because the original Articles restricted Class B transfers to keep voting control with the Glazers. The Class A shares had to be acquired through a tender offer governed by US securities rules. The cross-border nature of the deal is reflected in the adviser line-up: Slaughter and May and Paul Weiss for Ratcliffe, Latham and Watkins for Manchester United and Rothschild for the Glazers.

The transaction also needed Premier League and FA approval under their Owners' and Directors' Tests, scrutinising the financial standing and fitness of anyone buying into a football club, this a regulatory obstacle unique to football. It was the first deal approved under the test's 2023 revision which introduced an "Acquisition Leverage Test", this effectively banning debt-funded takeovers, a direct response to the type of buyout the Glazers used in 2005.

The most notable feature of the deal is the fact that Ratcliffe secured full control of footballing operations and two board seats despite being a minority shareholder. The Glazers retained majority ownership and the commercial side of the business while Ratcliffe's INEOS took over the sporting side.

Unlike the Glazers' 2005 takeover, Ratcliffe's investment was fully funded with equity, with no debt loaded onto the club. As such, the INEOS investment in Manchester United demonstrates how a carefully structured minority investment can still deliver effective control, while also reflecting the stricter financial and regulatory environment shaping modern football takeovers.