Sheikh Jassim Bin Hamad Al Thani submitted a fifth bid to buy Man United earlier this week. The club said in November that the board was considering an outright sale as one option for examining strategic alternatives to boost the club’s growth. Sheikh Jassim and Sir Jim Ratcliffe both officially acknowledged initial approaches in February, and the latter is said to have made a fifth offer this week to buy United. The offer for 100% of the club is still on the table, and those connected to Sheikh Jassim’s bid have said this will be the last offer. The bid team for Sheikh Jassim won’t participate in the process after this Friday, although this new offer comes after what was referred to be a “final offer” in late April.
Then, in May, the Raine Group, the New York-based investment firm supervising the sale of the club, received a fourth bid, which was reportedly close to £5 billion but fell short of the Glazer family’s £6 billion estimate. On April 28, the third and final round of bidding came to an end, but Sheikh Jassim has now reopened the process after last month’s allegations that a revised offer from Sir Jim Ratcliffe and INEOS had given them the upper hand in the race to buy Man 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. In May, United’s share price dropped to $18.80 on the NYSE, giving the team a $3.09 billion (£2.47 billion) market valuation.
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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