sport news Man United takeover: What is Sir Jim Ratcliffe's net worth? trends now
Britain's richest man Sir Jim Ratcliffe has revealed his interest in launching a takeover bid for Manchester United after the club was put up for sale by the Glazers.
Sir Jim, the 70-year-old founder and boss of chemical giant Ineos, is a Brexit-supporting football obsessive who recently attracted controversy for his decision to abandon Britain for the tax haven of Monaco.
The tycoon, who has an estimated net worth of £13.3billion, bought French club Nice for £91m in 2019 two years after purchasing Swiss team FC Lausanne-Sport.
He wants to buy Manchester United outright, having failed with a bid to buy Chelsea last May.
United's hated owners Avram and Joel Glazer announced plans to sell United in November, and it is believed that they want £5bn before walking away from the Old Trafford club.
Born in 1952, Sir Jim grew up in a council house on Dunkerley Avenue in Failsworth, a small town between Manchester and Oldham, before attending Beverley Grammar School when his family moved to Yorkshire.
On his first day at the University of Birmingham, he was embarrassed to see he was nearly at the bottom of a list of 99 undergraduates ranked by their A-level results, but went on to achieve a 2:1 in chemical engineering.
He worked for BP during a summer holiday after graduating and was offered a job. But he was fired after just three days because his boss had seen his medical report and wasn't keen on him working there with mild eczema.
Sir Jim went on to work as a trainee accountant at a pharmaceuticals company before moving to Esso then Courtaulds. In 1992 he mortgaged his house to buy BP's chemicals division for about £40million.
He only started his first business weeks before his 40th birthday and founded Ineos aged 45 in 1998. During the next 20 years he transformed it into the world's fourth largest chemicals company, with annual revenues of £45bn.
Sir Jim, the 69-year-old founder and boss of chemical giant Ineos, is a Brexit-supporting football obsessive who recently attracted controversy for his decision to abandon Britain for the tax haven of Monaco
Sir Jim faces an uphill battle to buy United, with its hated owners Joel (left) and Avram (right) Glazer are not believed to have any plans to cede control of the club any time soon
Sir Jim's £130million superyacht, the Hampshire II. His company, Ineos, is one of the largest petrochemical firms in the world
Sir Jim is a lifelong Manchester United fan, although he also has a season ticket at Chelsea.
He recently said: 'I am a season ticket holder at Chelsea, have been for years, although I'm a Manchester United fan really. Or was!'
He sponsors professional
