Sir Jim Ratcliffe is prepared to commit $300million (£245m) of his personal wealth for infrastructure upgrades at Manchester United.
INEOS, the petrochemicals company owned by Ratcliffe, is set to purchase a 25 per cent stake in United from the Glazer family.
Ratcliffe’s $300m investment would come out of his own pocket and would not add to United’s existing debt, which stands at $650m. It has not yet been officially agreed or signed but the cash injection is expected to happen.
It would also be only an initial investment — insufficient to completely fix the notable problems at Old Trafford, the club’s 74,000-seater stadium, and at Carrington, their training complex — with significantly more investment required in the future.
INEOS has experience with big infrastructure projects, with the company having just undertaken a five-year project to construct a chemical plant in Antwerp which involves “building and installing similar infrastructure that you would find in any small town or village”.
Yeah it’s not nothing, and it’ll make a good difference even if we just update Carrington and the player facilities at OT. The stadium itself is in a sorry state though and will take a lot of work that 300m will barely scratch the surface of.