British billionaire, Sir Jim Ratcliffe, may succeed Roman Abramovich as Chelsea FC’s owner. Ratcliffe had held talks over the potential takeover.
£2.5 billion valuation for Chealsea? – In a new development, Chelsea is the subject of interest for the British richest man. And he may only acquire the club for £2.5 billion (around N1.2 trillion).
He made his money from petrochemicals – Ratcliffe, who made his fortune by founding petrochemicals company Ineos, has already made his mark on the sporting scene by agreeing to purchase Team Sky, a British professional cycling team.
Ratcliffe may not have been contented with the intended purchase of Team Sky, as he’s now exploring the possibility of replacing Abramovich as the Chelsea owner, according to the Times.
The billionaire owns Swiss football outfit, Lausanne-Sport – Though Chelsea is not officially for sale, Abramovich has become an increasingly distant figure due to problems with his visa and he has withdrawn plans to rebuild Stamford Bridge. A sale to Ratcliffe is some way off, however, with Abramovich demanding £2.5 billion.
What will interest you about Sir Jim Ratcliffe
His net worth – Ratcliffe is thought to have a net wealth of £21 billion. He is the founder and majority owner of Ineos, a closely held chemicals manufacturer. The London-based company has about 19,000 employees, operates in 24 countries and reported revenue of $60 billion in 2017. It produces about 60 million tons of chemicals every year, including polymers and resins.
Ratcliffe is calculated to own 54 per cent of closely held Ineos, based on a Bloomberg analysis of a 2014 U.K. government filing and the 2017 annual report of subsidiary Ineos Group Holdings. The London-based company is valued based on a calculation of the group’s average Ebitda and the average enterprise value-to-Ebitda multiple of three publicly traded peer companies: BASF, LyondellBasell Industries and Saudi Basic Industries.
Ratcliffe, who studied chemical engineering and worked later in venture capital, only started as an entrepreneur in 1992 and founded Ineos just about 21 years ago. The company expanded quickly by buying unfashionable petrochemical assets cast off by big oil and chemicals groups. By slashing fixed costs, he soon had most of them generating lots of cash, allowing him to refinance loans.
