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increasingly distant figure due to problems with his visa and he has withdrawn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.