In what has been a long and somewhat tedious process, the sale of Manchester United is seemingly coming to a conclusion.
News emerged on Friday afternoon that the Glazers had finally chosen their preferred bidder, and with that the share price of the club plummeted. After the club was put up for sale in November, and after three separate rounds of bidding, it seems Sir Jim Ratcliffe has won.
Up against the Qataris, who still may enter an eleventh-hour bid in a desperate attempt to take over the club, Oldham-born Ratcliffe has finally got a hold of the football team he supports. That is according to The Times, who report the Glazers and The Raine Group are ready to enter final negotiations with the British billionaire.
But just who are The Raine Group? Mirror Football explains...
The Raine Group
The Raine Group are a US investment bank, based in New York. They specialise in mergers, acquisitions and joint venture. Most football fans will be familiar with Raine from their role in the sale of Chelsea Football Club to Todd Boehly in May 2022.
The bank were the lead financial advisors on the WWE and UFC merge and advisor to Eagle Football's acquisition of Ligue 1 side Lyon. They have also worked with Inter Miami, Epic Games and a number of other high profile companies in sport, media and technology.
They also have investments - a total of $3.8billion (£3.05bn) in fact - in companies such as SoundCloud and Vice.
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What do they do?
Essentially The Raine Group will act as intermediaries between the Glazers and the bidders. The bank, who will work as advisors to the Glazers, will listen to all of the demands of United's owners, such as sale price.
All bids are then submitted to The Raine Group who will run through the nitty gritty before reporting back to the Glazers, and, given their role, we can safely assume they'll advise on each of the submissions.
The Glazers will choose a bidder and instruct The Raine Group to enter final negotiations, which the American owners will naturally be a part of. This is where we're at today.
Who are they?
The Raine Group have as many as 15 partners listed on their website, with a number of managing partners and directors. Joe Ravitch, Jeff Sine, Brandon Gardner, John Salter and Deborah Mei are all listed as co-founders.
Net worth
It is reported the US giants have a net worth of $4billion. Given they have $3.8billion in investments, we shouldn't expect them to be calling the loan sharks any time soon.
