Sheikh Jassim Bin Hamad Al Thani has made an increased fourth bid to buy Manchester United. The reaffirmed offer from Sheikh Jassim was delivered to the Raine Group, the New York-based investment bank in charge of the club’s sale, on Tuesday morning. It is estimated to be close to £5 billion but falls short of the Glazer family’s £6 billion value. The third and final phase of bidding ended on April 28 but Sheikh Jassim has now made another proposal after rumours last week suggested Sir Jim Ratcliffe and INEOS were now in a strong position to buy United.
Sheikh Jassim thinks his offer is fiercely competitive and will be extremely advantageous for Manchester United, eliminating over £1 billion in debt and creating a separate fund to renovate Old Trafford, the neighbourhood, and the team’s Carrington training facility. Although INEOS valued United higher than Sheikh Jassim’s offer, it is not for the entire club and would allow the Glazers to preserve a 20% ownership interest. On Tuesday, United’s stock price declined to settle at $18.80 on the NYSE, giving the team a $3.09 billion (£2.47 billion) market valuation.
“This demonstrates the tenacity of Sheikh Jassim Qatari’s offer and how serious they are about purchasing Manchester United. Since the Glazers will eventually decide which proposal will be accepted, it is very difficult to determine who is the favourite,” Kaveh Solhekol said. “They must choose whether to accept Sheikh Jassim’s offer of full payment now or whether to accept only a portion of Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s offer in exchange for holding a share that would increase their financial gain in the future.”
The head of Qatar Islamic Bank, one of Qatar’s largest banks, is a sheikh from Qatar. Former Middle Eastern state prime minister Hamad Bin Jassim Bin Jaber Al Thani is the boy’s father. Although there isn’t much information available about him, it is known that he attended boarding school in the UK before enrolling at the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst, where he reportedly fell in love with United.
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