Controlled by billionaire Jim Ratcliffe, among Britain's richest men, Ineos said on Tuesday that it had contacted investment bank Raines, commissioned by the current owners of Manchester United, the American family Glazer.
"We have formally entered the process," a spokesperson for the group told the BBC.
Displayed supporter of the Red Devils, Ratcliffe, whose fortune is estimated by Forbes magazine at 15.5 billion dollars, ranked 111th in its 2022 ranking of the planet's billionaires, had already expressed his interest in Manchester United on several occasions even if he also tried to get his hands on Chelsea, finally sold last May to an American consortium for 4.25 billion pounds, a record.
But there is still a long way to go before a possible agreement with the Glazers, who have controlled Manchester United since 2005 and are hoping for offers of around 5 billion pounds (5.8 billion EUR), which would be a record amount.
Ratcliffe could notably face a competing offer from Saudi investors.
Prince Abdelaziz ben Turki Al-Faisal, Saudi Minister of Sports, mentioned last November a possible "interest" in the takeover of Manchester United but also Liverpool, also on sale.
Cycling in the spotlight, football in the sights
Getting hold of the Red Devils, one of the big clubs in Europe, would be a new step taken by Ineos in sport, where the acquisition in 2019 of the Sky cycling team made an impression.
"Sky was the benchmark in terms of performance in a sport that particularly highlights the name of the sponsor", deciphered then for AFP Vincent Chaudel, founder of the Observatory of sport business.
The former team of Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome had won six Tours de France between 2012 and 2018;
renamed Ineos, it pocketed the 2019 edition of the Great Loop with the Colombian Egan Bernal.
Even if the Ineos-Grenadiers are less present today at the forefront of a peloton dominated by the UAE of Tadej Pogacar and the Jumbo-Visma of Jonas Vingegaard, cycling continues to ensure first-rate visibility for the group. of Ratcliffe.
In football, obviously in the crosshairs of his marketing strategy due to the popularity of the N.1 sport in the world, the British billionaire has not yet succeeded in such a spectacular coup.
After the Lausanne Sport club, bought in 2017, it was OGC Nice that fell into his hands in 2019. Neither of them, however, have the media coverage and the track record of Manchester United.
"The most popular sport in the world is football, and it's the sport we are closest to," Ratcliffe said last October at a conference organized by the Financial Times.
"So we should be present."
Technology
Ineos has also ventured into the world of athletics with Kenyan runner Eliud Kipchpoge, meticulously and spectacularly organizing for him in October 2019 in the streets of Vienna, the Austrian capital, the first marathon run in less than two hours (1 hour 59 minutes and 40 seconds) - performance not approved by the International Athletics Federation given the very specific race conditions.
The brand has also made itself visible at the very prestigious America's Cup, one of the oldest existing sports competitions, with the Britannia monohull and appears on the single-seaters entered in Formula One by the Mercedes team, which Ineos owns. also shares.
Two sports where technology is paramount.
However, nothing predestined Jim Ratcliffe to become a billionaire and to be knighted by the queen, he who grew up in social housing in the suburbs of Manchester.
The former chemistry student from the University of Birmingham and holder of an MBA from the London Business School created Ineos, which he still majority owns, at the age of 40, before growing it with blows of acquisitions.
Discreet, Ratcliffe, who has taken up residence in Monaco, a principality known for its unintrusive tax system, and has never listed his group on the stock market, rarely speaks to the press.
"We make billions in profit. What's wrong with investing a little in sport?" he explained before the marathon project set up with Kipchoge.
© 2023 AFP