£4 billion offer Made To Buy Chelsea By Britain’s Richest Man

Sir Jim Ratcliffe, the billionaire owner of petrochemicals giant Ineos, has tabled an offer worth £4 billion to buy Chelsea – a fortnight after the deadline for new bids expired.

Chelsea were understood to be close to making a final decision over the three previously shortlisted bidders before Ratcliffe’s 11th-hour offer came out of leftfield.

The British billionaire has been linked several times with a potential Chelsea takeover, but his brother has previously said there had been a difference of opinion over valuations. However, in a shock new announcement, Sir Jim claims he has sent a bid to the merchant bank, Raine, which is conducting the takeover process.

“We put an offer in this morning,” Ratcliffe told The Times newspaper. “We are the only British bid. Our motives are simply to try and create a very fine club in London. We have no profit motive because we make our money in other ways.”

The offer from Ratcliffe includes a pledge of investing £1.75bn on developing the stadium, team and infrastructure, on top of about £2.5bn for the initial purchase. Representatives from the shortlisted bidders, fronted by Todd Boehly, Stephen Pagliuca and Sir Martin Broughton, have been holding final rounds of talks at Stamford Bridge this week.

The trio had already faced an 11th-hour demand to raise their offers by up to £500 million to meet Roman Abramovich’s £3bn asking price. Extra cash would be on top of a commitment to invest around £1bn in Chelsea’s stadium and squad and would be donated to charity as part of Abramovich’s pledge to give away all net proceeds from their sale.

He made that promise – plus a vow to write off the £1.5bn he had loaned the club during his near 20-year tenure – before he was sanctioned by the Government over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Since then, ministers have made it clear Abramovich will not be permitted to make a penny from the sale.

It was not immediately clear whether Raine or Chelsea would be willing to entertain the out-of-the-blue offer from Monaco-based Ratcliffe, one of Britain’s richest men with a reported net worth of more than £10bn.

Ratcliffe has built up significant experience across the sporting spectrum with sailing team Ineos Britannia, cycling’s Team Ineos (formerly Team Sky) and a five-year partnership with the Mercedes Formula 1 team signed in 2020.

Ratcliffe is also involved in football after purchasing Swiss club FC Lausanne-Sport in 2017 and French outfit OGC Nice two years later. He has been linked to Chelsea on several occasions in the past, reportedly possessing a season ticket at the Bridge despite being a Manchester United supporter.

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