Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani has reportedly met the Glazer family’s asking price with his second bid to buy Manchester United.
It’s claimed the Qatari banker has blown fellow frontrunner Sir Jim Ratcliffe, as well as the other bidders, out of the water with his new and improved offer.
According to Sportico (via Express), INEOS founder Ratcliffe submitted a second offer of £5bn, but has been roundly beaten by Sheikh Jassim, who is thought to have met the Glazers’ £6bn valuation of the club.
The report adds that the Qatar Islamic Bank president met the Glazer family for two rounds of talks last week.
All bidders were given a 9pm deadline for second offers on Wednesday, but bids from both Ratcliffe and Sheikh Jassim didn’t materialise as it was later revealed that the former had asked for an extension.
Ratcliffe submitted his revised bid on Thursday, with confirmation of Sheikh Jassim’s thought to be arriving shortly.
Former Crystal Palace owner Simon Jordan has rubbished reports of deadlines for bids and says the Raine Group are “creating competitive tension” to make the Glazers more money.
“We’ve always said from the get-go, if they [the Glazers] get the price they want – and it’s probably slightly north of £5billion, it certainly isn’t £6billion
“There is a lot of misrepresentation in this – no one is getting extensions, because ultimately nobody expected anyone to put a drop-dead deal in place.
“What you’ve got is indicative offers, that’s the first stage. Show you’ve got the money, show you’ve got the means, show you’ve got the will – that gets you in the door.
“That then slims down the list of all the tyre-kickers and you get in a position of competitive tension. The Raine Group are doing their job which is to represent the Glazers and try to jack the price up between the various people who want to buy it.
“It’s not about deadlines, it’s just the process of selling a business.
“The reason why this is finding so much yin and yang is that the media are pulling at the strings and the Raine group are using the media to create that competitive tension,” Jordan added.
“The truth is, this can drag on as long as the Glazers want it to until they get their price.
“It’s not set by deadlines, it’s set by commercial gain and if it takes six months to sell the business because you’re playing two sides against one another, that’s what it will take.”
