Apollo and Malik Ineos are interested in Manchester United | comp

Venture capital fund Apollo Global Management and owner of the chemical group Ineos, Jim Ratcliffe, are the first names to appear from the list of parties interested in acquiring part of the Manchester United stake, 97% owned by the Glazer family, which will be willing to open the club’s capital to its investors. third party. All after Elon Musk, owner and founder of Tesla, joked about buying the entity, something he later denied.

According to Bloomberg, investors see a huge opportunity in the sports-related business, and in the case of Manchester, the English football giant, believe that it is still below its potential. “In the case of Manchester United, investors are seeing that not enough has been invested and that a giant has fallen,” explained Doug Harmer, partner at sports consultancy Oakwell Sports who was consulted by the agency.

One of the main attractions for large funds and investors is the income that Premier clubs earn from TV rights. According to consultancy Deloitte, the Premier League’s revenue this season is expected to exceed 7,000 million euros through this channel.

If the Glazers are interested in selling a part of Manchester United, there will be no shortage of interested parties. The latest case of the sale of Chelsea was by the Russian businessman Roman Abramovich, who received nearly 250 calls after announcing his decision to sell, due to the blockade to which the United Kingdom had subjected the assets of the Russian oligarchy in the country, after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Interested parties include Citadel founder Ken Griffin, Bain Capital co-chair Stephen Pagliuca, Apollo co-founder Josh Harris, and Oaktree Capital. It also overtook the interest of Jim Ratcliffe himself, who put out a £2,500m bid, along with another 1,750 committed as a 10-year investment, for the London team.

Finally, it was sold to American businessman Todd Boyle, owner of Guggenheim Partners, a global financial services and advisory firm, and to private fund Clearlake Capital for £4,250 million between various concepts. For its part, Manchester United will be valued at around £5,000 million, according to Forbes estimates.

The main factor that could push the family to enter another investor is the discontent of the masses. And the family signed last year the agreement to join the Premier League, which led to a wave of protests among the fans, who came to sweep the grass in the club’s stadium. Added to this are poor sporting results, and poor care for both the stadium and the sports city that fans blame on the Glazer family.