Sir Jim Ratcliffe: I want to buy Manchester United | Will make a bid for the club [Telegraph]

Grylte said:
Not much of a conspiracy person, buuuut maybe we went from Rabiot and Arnautovic to Casemiro and Felix because more money all of a sudden appeared?

Just thinking out loud... in text.
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I think it's more Murtough finding out he had the 1-star filter checked on by mistake on FM transfer search.
 
sullydnl said:
Not really. But relative to human rights violations or whatever I guess it could be worse. I think I'm right in saying the Glazers supported Trump? In which case we wouldn't exactly be downgrading on that score either.

Ultimately I suspect you'd struggle to find people rich enough to buy United who aren't to some degree horrible as that degree of wealth seems to trend in that direction. There's a line I wouldn't cross in terms of who I'd want owning the club but I don't think being pro-Brexit is beyond it.
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People won't be happy unless they own the club themselves. The internet hates rich people.
 
Even if he buys us, Doesn't invest a penny of his own money, without all the Debt repayments and interest repayments and dividends we've paid over the last 17 years, which is roughly 1 billion. It works out at an extra 588 million a year, add that on top of the money we've already invested in the football side. crazyness.
 
::sonny:: said:
He said “I could be interested” not “I want to buy”
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His Spokesperson said;

"If the club is for sale, Jim is definitely a potential buyer.

"If something like this was possible, we would be interested in talking with a view to long-term ownership.

"This is not about the money that has been spent or not spent. Jim is looking at what can be done now and, knowing how important the club is to the city, it feels like the time is right for a reset."
 
Redjazz said:
From an investment pov, the club isn't worth 5b. No where close.
The glazers bought United at 16 times cash profits, a bullish price justified on the basis that there was untapped commercial potential. 5B runs at 30+ times current cash profits. Where is the untapped potential this time around? The landscape is also much different- competition is more fierce and diverse.
One of my biggest gripes with the Glazer's ownership (apart from the exorbitant ownership costs) was the aggressive for-profit model itself. Maximizing revenues and restricting costs ( the basis of shareholder value and returns) means you can't have winning on the pitch as your primary goal. It's simply not feasible because the preponderance of the market is run on-not-for profit basis, which in turn means that the primary costs in the game (wages and player acquisition costs) are set at near break even. In fact, I reckon those costs are above break-even with the petrodollar clubs subsidizing their spending with bogus commercial deals.
"No value in the market" might have been used as an excuse in the past for not buying players, but I reckon it's pretty accurate if the value being described is shareholder value.
Unless a shareholder owned club has unique advantages (on the revenue side), its virtually impossible to be consistently competitive while delivering strong shareholder returns.
Yeah, so 5b isn't giving any rational investor a viable return.
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You need to figure in an equity multiple at exit. There is a reason so many hedge funds and venture capital firms are buying clubs.
 
Adam-Utd said:
"we love Jim Ratcliffe we do, we love Jim Ratcliffe we do, OH RATCLIFFE WE LOVE YOU" :D
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FujiVice said:
69 is a great change, considering we've been shagged up the arse for the last 17 years.
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lefty_jakobz said:
Is he the DM we’ve all been crying out for? HIM FDJ and Casemiro Antony Martinez Malcia and Eriksen is a great transfer window :)
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Thia is a party I don’t want to end!

P-Ro said:
You lot cool with the whole him being a massive brexiteer thing?
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Don’t worry. We have a tradition of getting right wing players in and turning them out as left wing players.
 
Hearing he’s the vice chairman of the Flat Earth Society and general executive of the Vaccines Have 5G Microchips Community. Do we really want an owner like that?
 
Massive Spanner said:
People don’t realise how much money Utd makes cause so much of it goes to the Glazers and debt repayments. We don’t need anyone pumping money into the club to spend extortionate amounts, we just need it not all being taken out.
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Spot on. If we can clear the debt the Glazers saddled the club with we are completely self-sustainable.
 
DSG said:
You need to figure in an equity multiple at exit. There is a reason so many hedge funds and venture capital firms are buying clubs.
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That's assuming they'll sell at a profit. Will they?
 


This is a power play. No way in hell can Joel and Avram hang on to total control if the others want out. Their empire is crumbling, and I'm loving it :drool:
 
Marcelinho87 said:
Think this has more meat to it than transfer rumours considering his own spokesperson has confirmed it.
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It does seem to be legs to this but i`m still afraid of the disappointment and heartbreak if it falls apart.
 
Demonstrations need to be newsworthy on Monday again. Enough to discourage this Yank investment firm from dealing with the leeches.
 
Compton22 said:


This is a power play. No way in hell can Joel and Avram hang on to total control if the others want out. Their empire is crumbling, and I'm loving it :drool:
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Heard the family make most of their money on commercial real estate (retail malls etc.) Now that the core business is failing, they could be incentivized to add some much needed liquidity.
 
Compton22 said:


This is a power play. No way in hell can Joel and Avram hang on to total control if the others want out. Their empire is crumbling, and I'm loving it :drool:
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Don't those 2 own a majority of the shares by themselves anyway?
 
Pogue Mahone said:
So that’s that then. Ratcliffe being given the cold shoulder.
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If I knew a very wealthy Manchester United fan wanted to buy the club and if I wanted to sell at the highest price I’d probably leak I was in discussions with other people too. I mean the article even gives a deadline - next month is when it’ll happen - so he’d better get a move on.
 
Red the Bear said:
Don't those 2 own a majority of the shares by themselves anyway?
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They do. The point is that their position is untenable enough as it is without adding to the fact that other Glazer shareholders want to sell. The pressure on them would only intensify even more if they hung on.
 
AdNani said:
Even if he buys us, Doesn't invest a penny of his own money, without all the Debt repayments and interest repayments and dividends we've paid over the last 17 years, which is roughly 1 billion. It works out at an extra 588 million a year, add that on top of the money we've already invested in the football side. crazyness.
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We won't get anywhere near that much. We pay about £20m in dividends and £20m in interest every year. We will get £40m per year at most. Dampen your expectation a bit about this - the amount we spend will not really change at all.

98% of all income is already spent on club activities every year.
 
Would be right in line with what Ratcliffe did when we were for sale a few months ago. Make a very public statement and last minute push once he knows it’s extremely unlikely so that the fans get behind his bid.
 
Tarrou said:
the club not commenting is basically meaningless at this stage

this is a bit of a journalists trick to add something to the story

when something like this breaks journalists will call the press office, and when they call they already know that the press office has a standard "no comment" policy on anything new breaking

so the press officer says the "sorry no comment" line, and the journalist reports it as "the club declines to comment".. making it sound like the club has already made a specific decision to not comment on this specific story, when in fact nothing of the sort has occurred yet
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So the club doesn't want to say sorry no comment just in case there's something in it. Making the no comment stance potentially significant.
 
Orc said:
Would be right in line with what Ratcliffe did when we were for sale a few months ago. Make a very public statement and last minute push once he knows it’s extremely unlikely so that the fans get behind his bid.
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With all due respect, I think and agree with some media outlets saying he was late with the Chelsea bid on purpose as he was hinting to the Glazers.

Could be wrong but I just don't think he really wanted Chelsea.
 
Lecland07 said:
We won't get anywhere near that much. We pay about £20m in dividends and £20m in interest every year. We will get £40m per year at most. Dampen your expectation a bit about this - the amount we spend will not really change at all.

98% of all income is already spent on club activities.
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to be clear, i wasn't expecting us to spend that every year, i just divided 1bn by 17 and that's what i got :lol: :lol:
 
Orc said:
Would be right in line with what Ratcliffe did when we were for sale a few months ago. Make a very public statement and last minute push once he knows it’s extremely unlikely so that the fans get behind his bid.
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And for what reason would he do that here?
 
Marcelinho87 said:
With all due respect, I think and agree with some media outlets saying he was late with the Chelsea bid on purpose as he was hinting to the Glazers.

Could be wrong but I just don't think he really wanted Chelsea.
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Maybe not. But this is almost exactly the same playbook.

It was announced that Boehly and Clearlake Capital had entered into exclusive talks and then boom, Ratcliffe announced his bid at the 11th hour. Here, it seems Apollo have entered into exclusive talks and boom, Ratcliffe announces his bid. Perhaps he got word?
 
TheReligion said:
And for what reason would he do that here?
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Because, as we see here on this forum and all over social media, Man United fans will go crazy calling for Ratcliffe the savior. Perhaps he thinks the fan sentiment will work in his favor?
 
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