The Qatari bidder for Manchester United, Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad al-Thani, dropped out of the race to buy the club after failing to prove he had sufficient finance for the deal, according to a document submitted to American authorities.
In filings made to the US Securities and Exchange Commission to confirm Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s acquisition of 27.69% of the club, Jassim (referred to as “Bidder A”) is described as having failed to respond to requests to show where his money was coming from. It was also revealed that Ratcliffe issued a Christmas Day deadline for acceptance of his final offer, threatening to walk away if there was no progress.
As part of the Schedule 14D‑9 filing, which articulates a business’s response to a takeover offer, United said Bidder A failed repeatedly to submit the “customary financing commitment letters”. After a series of revised and improved bids over the spring of 2023 came without the letters attached, the board of directors at United eventually told Jassim that they would “require sufficient evidence of the financing and customary financing commitment papers” before continuing with negotiations. Those papers never arrived and on 15 October Bidder A withdrew from the process.
A relatively obscure figure within the higher echelons of Qatari society, Sheikh Jassim arriving as a suitor for a club valued by the Glazer family at more than $5bn raised eyebrows at the time, with questions asked as to whether he had sufficient money or whether he was the frontman for a bid funded by the Qatari state. Despite a stream of media reports articulating the transformative potential of Jassim’s ownership, it appears that prospect was never close to reality.
The long and complicated history of the United sale is laid bare in the filings, showing how Ratcliffe slowly expanded and increased his offer before pivoting to taking a minority stake in July 2023.
Filings also show that in the week before Christmas, Ratcliffe’s company, Trawlers Limited, “gave Manchester United a deadline of December 25, 2023 to accept its best and final proposal”. This came after pushback from directors outside the Glazer family to an “October Proposal” from Ratcliffe of $33 (£26) for 25% of Class A and B shares plus $300m capital.
Ratcliffe responded by agreeing to slight concessions after conversations between 18 and 22 December but “was not prepared to accept any of other changes proposed by the non-affiliated directors”. On 22 December a board meeting featured a “robust discussion regarding the feedback from [Ratcliffe]”.
The board representatives noted Ratcliffe “could decide to withdraw [the] proposal if the board of directors was not prepared to move forward by December 25, 2023”. That transaction was subsequently agreed on 24 December, bringing an end to a process that started in November 2022.
