By Mrinmay Dey
(Reuters) – Sheikh Jassim Bin Hamad Al Thani, the son of Qatar’s former prime minister, submitted his final bid for the entirety of Manchester United just before Friday’s deadline, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters.
In addition to offering a figure to buy the English Premier League soccer club, Sheikh Jassim’s proposal also includes a plan for a further significant amount of additional capital and infrastructure investment, the source told Reuters, requesting anonymity because the matter is confidential.
The source added that the bid is for 100% of the club and would remove all debt.
Manchester United and Raine Group, the investment bank running the bidding process, did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
No financial details of the final bid have been officially revealed.
Sheikh Jassim’s offer falls short of the 6 billion pounds ($7.54 billion) asking price set by current owners, the Glazer family, The Guardian reported earlier in the day adding that the bid was understood to be worth around 5 billion pounds.
Manchester United’s American owners launched a formal sale process late last year and have received several bids, including from British billionaire Jim Ratcliffe, founder of chemicals producer INEOS, and Finnish businessman Thomas Zilliacus.
Sky Sports News reported that Ratcliffe’s bid for a majority stake in Manchester United has also been submitted.
INEOS did not respond to a request for comment.
Any sale of Manchester United would likely exceed the biggest sports deal so far, the $5.2 billion including debt and investments paid for Chelsea, sources told Reuters previously.
United are the fourth richest soccer club in the world, according to analysis by Deloitte. They are widely seen as one of the most prized assets in all of sport.
A small portion of the club’s shares is listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The company’s market value was about $3.4 billion, as of Thursday’s close.
In March, Reuters reported that Sheikh Jassim had submitted a second bid to buy the club.
($1 = 0.7954 pounds)
(Reporting by Mrinmay Dey and Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu and Toby Davis)
