Huge fee Glazers would pay Sir Jim Ratcliffe for terminating Man Utd deal revealed

Man Utd

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The Glazer family and Manchester United might have to shell out around $66 million to Sir Jim Ratcliffe if they decide to cancel the deal to let him acquire a small portion of the football club.

The billionaire who owns a petrochemicals company has decided to purchase a quarter of the football club for a massive sum of £1.3 billion, and this investment will increase to around 29% once his $300 million contribution towards the development of the club is turned into more shares.

The agreement needs to be approved by regulators, which includes the Premier League. It could take as long as eight weeks for the approval process to be completed.

In case United and the Glazer family cancel the agreement before it's completed, they will need to pay Sir Jim a termination fee of $48 million along with an additional sum that cannot go over $18 million. This payment must be made within three working days.

The contract between different groups has additional provisions where Sir Jim is granted the initial opportunity to purchase if the Glazers - who will only have 49% ownership of the club - decide to sell more of their shares within 12 months.

However, if the Glazers decide to completely sell the club within the next year and a half, the owner of Ineos would be required to sell his shares for $33 per share, which is the same amount he purchased them for.

Owner of Ineos, Sir Jim Ratcliffe, has secured a 25% share in Manchester United after finalising a deal.

United cannot carry out transfers or dismiss their manager Erik ten Hag or football director John Murtough without seeking approval from Sir Jim and Ineos.

The 71-year-old supporter of United is going to obtain a couple of places on the board for the football team. Nevertheless, he is going to assign these spots to other people, namely Jean-Claude Blanc, the former CEO of Juventus and Sir Dave Brailsford, who runs the cycling team. Furthermore, the supporter will get two places on the board for the PLC. These spots will be given to John Reece, the Ineos chief financial officer and Rob Nevin, who is the chairman of Ineos Sport.

Sir Jim is acquiring his share in United through his private company, Trawlers Ltd, which will enable him to make a call on whether dividends are to be paid out to shareholders for the next three years. The name of the company is inspired by Eric Cantona's iconic line on seagulls from 1995. Sir Jim is financing this transaction from his own pocket, without resorting to taking on additional debt for United in the process.

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