Inside The Rich World Of Man U Suitor Jim Ratcliffe Who Made Billions From Chemicals But Was Once Sacked For A Crazy Reason

And with a personal fortune of around £11 billion, he can certainly afford to buy Manchester United. 14 Mancunian Jim Ratcliffe has a personal fortune of around £11 billion Credit: Times Newspapers Ltd 14 Jim with his wife Alicia at the French footie club NiceCredit: Getty 14 Ratcliffe was knighted by Prince William in 2018Credit: PA:Press Association 14 Jim with sons Sam and GeorgeCredit: Getty It announced this week that it would have the chance to buy the Premier League soccer giant, which is owned by the American Glazer family. Eventually Sir Jim hopes to take over the entire club, which the club’s current owners say is worth £5 billion. He is so rich that he wouldn’t need to borrow a penny to buy Man United, invest heavily in new players and modernize Old Trafford. And the money men certainly think he’s serious. United shares on the New York Stock Exchange had jumped 15 percent yesterday to more than 11 pounds each. Sir Jim offered £4billion to buy Chelsea in May, but admitted he only made the club he had followed since his childhood – unavailable. As he approaches his 70th birthday, the carpenter’s son who grew up on a Manchester council estate could get the gift he’s always dreamed of – owning Old Trafford and the Red Devils. Sports-mad Sir Jim has come a long way from Dunkerly Avenue, Failsworth, where he lived until he was ten and went almost every other week to watch Sir Matt Busby’s team in action. In 1999 he was in Barcelona at the Nou Camp stadium when United came back from the death to beat Bayern Munich 2-1 to win the Champions League. Sir Jim described it as “three minutes you’ll never forget in your life”. So some things are priceless, even for a man whose vast fortune comes from a 60% stake in a privately held chemical giant that always claims to be “the world’s biggest company you’ve never heard of.” A total of 26,000 people work for Ineos at more than 194 sites in 29 countries. The 60 million tons of chemicals it produces each year go into almost everything we use, from antibiotics, toothpaste and clean water to insulation and food packaging. All of which means Sir Jim can afford a luxury home in Monaco, a £6 million mansion next to Hampshire and a house in Chelsea, West London, near the Grenadier pub, where he considered building a 4×4 to replace the Land Rover. DEFENDER. He also has a mega-house on Lake Geneva, Switzerland, near the home of F1 star Michael Schumacher, and a 260-foot superyacht, the Hampshire II. If Sir Jim eventually buys Man United from the American Glazer family, he will not be stepping into the unknown because he already owns two football clubs. In 2017 he bought the Swiss club FC Lausanne-Sport — relegated last season to the Swiss second division. And in 2019 Sir Jim acquired Nice, who play in France’s Ligue 1, for just under £100m. He also spent £40m buying Sky’s Tour de France-winning cycling team and regularly goes on training rides with Ineos Grenadiers stars. He has shares in Mercedes’ Formula 1 operation and is backing Sir Ben Ainslie’s bid for sailing’s America’s Cup, in which Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, is competing. I was fired because I had mild eczema. They told me “You can’t work here, not with eczema. We can’t spend the money to train you for five years and then find out you have an allergy, so you’re on your bike.” Jim Ratcliffe Amazingly, Sir Jim only made his amazing fortune in the last 25 years. Until then his life was unremarkable. He struggled at school because of his obsession with football, entered university with some of the worst A-level results of his peers at college and was fired from his first job. His success was a complete surprise even to him. Sir Jim says: “You should see a picture of the council house where I started. I was just playing football, really. That’s all I was interested in.” His father, who started out as a carpenter, rose to run a factory making furniture for science labs. His mom worked as a secretary. The family moved to Beverley, East Yorks, when his father found a new job and Jim entered the local grammar school. In the sixth form he organized tours of local factories. He says: “I guess I had this idea that I wanted to be successful – that I wanted to be a millionaire one day. These things were on my mind at 18. But I was just dreaming, really.” He chose to study chemical engineering at the University of Birmingham. But he arrived in the chemistry department to find a group of students gathered around a notice board, reading a list of the 99 students in his course, ranked according to their A-level results. Ratcliffe was ashamed to be near the bottom. 14 Northern soul Jim as a young man in Manchester 14 Jim came up with the idea of building a 4×4 to replace the Land Rover DefenderCredit: Jon Bond – The Sun 14 Ratcliffe with Chris Froome and INEOS Team Principal Sir Dave BrailsfordCredit: PA:Press Association She says: “He lacked a bit of sensitivity. But you could say it was fair. There were a lot of kids who had worked really hard in school while I was playing football.” Working for BP during the summer holidays he was offered a permanent job only to be fired within three days. He says: “I got a call from my boss who was reading my medical report — they hadn’t bothered until then. I was fired because I had mild eczema. They told me “You can’t work here, not with eczema. We can’t spend the money to train you for five years and then find out you have an allergy, so you’re on your bike.” Jim failed to persuade BP to take him on as a trainee accountant, so he moved to the textile and chemical company Courtaulds, where he stayed until he was in his thirties. Lured by the perk of a much better car, a white BMW 535i, he switched to dealmaker with venture capital firm Advent International. He says: “They tripled my salary and offered me a fancy car. I liked that car — it was better than the one the Courtaulds chairman had. “The world of venture capital is very simple. If you make bad deals, you get fired. If you don’t make a deal, you get fired. I took this job because it would provide many opportunities. I always had a feeling that a really good one was coming.” In 1992, he bought BP’s specialty chemicals business for around £40m, taking it public two years later. But Jim left the company in 1998. By then, his ten-year marriage to his first wife Amanda Townson, with whom he has two sons, George and Samuel, had ended in divorce. He has a daughter with second wife, Alicia. He is now believed to be with his current partner Catherine Polli. His fortunes changed for the better when he bought an Antwerp-based chemical business, which became the beginning of Ineos. I guess I had this idea that I wanted to be successful – that I wanted to be a millionaire one day. These things were on my mind at 18. But I was just dreaming, really. Jim Ratcliffe Jim and his new business partners, Andy Curry and John Rees, became masters at spotting untapped potential in factories and flag plants. Sir Jim says: “We would look at businesses that weren’t fashionable or sexy, corporate-owned facilities. We would make them work a little better, make them busy and very profitable.” The deals got bigger and bigger and by 2018 Jim’s stake in the business made him Britain’s richest man with a fortune of £21 billion. A Brexit and fracking supporter, he wants Britain to build more. He says: “You can’t have an economy of 70 million people where you don’t produce any products. If you do, every time you want to buy an item you must first buy some currency and find a country to sell it to you. That’s stupid – you end up with a fragile economy.” While United fans are praying that Sir Jim will come to rescue the club – they are rock bottom after two games that both ended in defeat – business experts have warned them not to get too optimistic. While the Glazers say United are worth £5 billion, the stock market values the club at much less. Sky TV Business presenter Ian King says: “Sir Jim Ratcliffe has never knowingly paid for anything in his career.” 14 F1 drivers Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas celebrate with JimCredit: AFP 14 Ratcliffe with the Mercedes F1 team Credit: Getty 14 Ratcliffe meets staff at the Grangemouth plant as the first ship carrying shale gas from the US arrives in the Firth of ForthCredit: Getty 14 Ratcliffe’s childhood home in Dunkerley Avenue, Failsworth, Lancs 14 Aerial view of Lake Geneva where Ratcliffe has a mega homeCredit: Getty 14 Ratcliffe’s 260ft super-yacht Hampshire IICcredit: Alamy 14 The Sun reported Sir Jim’s interest in buying Man Utd

title: “Inside The Rich World Of Man U Suitor Jim Ratcliffe Who Made Billions From Chemicals But Was Once Sacked For A Crazy Reason Klmat” ShowToc: true date: “2022-11-19” author: “Andrew Stevens”

title: “Inside The Rich World Of Man U Suitor Jim Ratcliffe Who Made Billions From Chemicals But Was Once Sacked For A Crazy Reason Klmat” ShowToc: true date: “2022-10-31” author: “Victoria Berry”

title: “Inside The Rich World Of Man U Suitor Jim Ratcliffe Who Made Billions From Chemicals But Was Once Sacked For A Crazy Reason Klmat” ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-09” author: “Hee Mcburney”

title: “Inside The Rich World Of Man U Suitor Jim Ratcliffe Who Made Billions From Chemicals But Was Once Sacked For A Crazy Reason Klmat” ShowToc: true date: “2022-11-08” author: “Aaron Lynch”