Before tonight’s 9 p.m. deadline, Sheikh Jassim bin Hamas Al Thani of Qatar will make a record-breaking offer for Manchester United.
Before the Raine group, who are handling the sale’s marketing, closes for business at 5pm in New York (9pm UK time), there will be at least five bids and possibly as many as eight.
Though not all of those offers are to purchase the club outright; at least half are anticipated to come from parties interested in acquiring a minority stake or those prepared to offer financing to third parties.
Although Sheikh Jassim and Sir Jim Ratcliffe are the front-runners, there is currently no clear favorite. The highest first-round offers valued the club at about £4.5 billion, which is significantly less than the Glazer family’s £6 billion asking price.
Elliott Management is one of the other bidders that has come forward; Ares, MSD Partners, and Oaktree Capital are also rumored to be interested.
The Glazer family may decide to sell a minority stake and use the proceeds to reduce debt and make investments for future growth; selling United is not a given.
It will take the Raine group and the Glazers about a week to assess the new offers and make their decision.
Although it is more likely that there will be another round of bids with a smaller group of preferred bidders, one bidder may be granted exclusivity.
The six-hour visit Ratcliffe and his INEOS delegation made to the club last Friday has been praised for being impressive and sophisticated in their approach.
I Won’t Pay Any ‘Stupid’ Money For Man United
Sir Jim Ratcliffe says he will not pay a “stupid” price for United but his interest in club would be “purely in winning things”, calling the club a “community asset”.
Prior to a delegation’s visit to Old Trafford, it was believed that the Qatari bidders were adamant about not paying more than necessary for the club. However, in recent days, that perception has changed.
A train from London brought a Qatari delegation to Manchester, where they were welcomed with open arms. Ten hours of talks was a lot longer than anticipated.
Sheikh Jassim and his team had previously visited Old Trafford in the capacity of supporters, and the goal of this trip was to gain insight into what they could accomplish with their financial investment in terms of infrastructure, youth development, and the women’s team.
Any offer that exceeds £3.75 billion will surpass the previous record price paid for a sports team, which was set when the Denver Broncos were sold last summer.
The Washington Commanders are also for sale and are anticipated to fetch a higher price.
How much money will convince Glazers to sell Man United?
Sky Sports News chief reporter Kaveh Solhekol:
“If someone comes along and offers £6bn-£7bn, then the Raine Group and the Glazers look at that and say, ‘you know what, these people have made such a good bid, we’re going to give them exclusivity’. That means they get access to all the books, nobody else does, and they look to tie up a deal to sell the club to them.
“If that happens, Wednesday could be the beginning of the end. But what’s much more likely is that five bids, maybe as many as eight, will go in, and there’ll be a third stage of bidding as well. I think it’ll be whittled down again and this will keep on running for another few weeks.
“I still think it won’t be done until the end of the season, the beginning of the transfer window, and the Glazers could well stay at the club.
“They might look at all the offers and say, ‘that’s not good enough, we think Man Utd is worth a lot more, especially in the future,’ so they just send a minority stake to a hedge fund or an investment company, and use the money to pay off some of the debt, do up Old Trafford or the training ground a little bit, and stay in control. I was told on Tuesday morning not to discount that as a possibility – it could still happen.”
