It was my birthday last Tuesday. I received a new radio from my wife and a jacket from my parents. Well, when I say “from”, what I really mean is I bought them, then told my wife and parents what they had got me. It is just easier that way.
It was Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s birthday last week, and it looks like he buys his own presents, too. When you know what you really want, why risk it?
Doing it that way must also take a lot of pressure off his family and friends. After all, what do you get a billionaire for his birthday?
A bike? Nah, he owns one of the world’s best cycling teams.
A car? Nope, one of his companies manufactures a line of 4x4s, he owns a third of the Mercedes F1 team and has the great Michael Schumacher’s very first Ferrari in his garage.
A boat? Been there, done that. He owns a $150million (£123m) super-yacht and the skipper of his sailing team is four-time Olympic gold medallist Sir Ben Ainslie.
OK, you get it. Ratcliffe, whose company INEOS has made an offer to buy a quarter of Manchester United for £1.3billion ($1.6billion), is rich.
But how rich? How much money does INEOS have? And, crucially, what could all this mean for United, a club which posted record revenues but still made a loss for the 2022-23 season?
GO DEEPER
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