Insight into Jim Ratcliffe the billionaire sports team owner investing in a variety of sports from the America’s Cup to F1 and Football Sir Jim Ratcliffe is a huge backer of major sports teams, inducing the British bid for the America\u2019s Cup, INEOS Britannia.
\nFormerly a chemical engineer, Sir Jim Ratcliffe became an investment specialist before founding the Anglo-Swiss petrochemicals giant INEOS in 1998. Over two decades Ratcliffe grew INEOS into an enormous multinational, the fourth largest chemicals company in the world, with a reported a profit of \u20ac3.5bn in 2021.
\nRatcliffe\u2019s previously worked with oil giant Esso, but in 1998 he formed INEOS to buy out BP\u2019s chemicals division Inspec.
\nINEOS has rapidly built to become a giant in the chemicals industry and has helped Ratcliffe to become one of the richest men in the UK. He was listed as the richest man in the UK in 2018 Sunday Times Rich List with a net worth of \u00a321.05 billion.
\nJim Ratcliffe and sports
\nJim Ratcliffe was relatively unknown beyond the financial pages, despite his impressive wealth, until he and INEOS began to sponsor a variety of major sports teams and British sporting endeavours. Speaking in 2021 he said, \u201cThere are three of us who own INEOS, and we\u2019re all from the North of England, just three normal blokes who like sport.\u201d
\nRatcliffe\u2019s first major investment was in football, when he bought the Swiss club\u00a0FC Lausanne-Sport in 2017.
\nThis was swiftly followed by one of his most ambitious partnerships, when Jim Ratcliffe \u2013 who is\u00a0founder, chairman and majority shareholder of INEOS \u2013 and the company partnered with the most successful Olympic sailor of all time, Sir Ben Ainslie, to try to win the America\u2019s Cup.
\nIn 2018 it was announced that INEOS would fund Ben Ainslie\u2019s America\u2019s Cup team in what was the biggest \u2013 and possibly the fastest \u2013 sponsorship investment in British sailing.
\nThe \u00a3110m deal, aimed at winning back the Cup for the first time in its 167-year history, was signed a mere four weeks after Ratcliffe met Ainslie in a London pub and chatted over a drink. Ratcliffe later joked that it was \u201cthe most expensive gin and tonic in history!\u201d.
\nThe partnership was met with some controversy as INEOS is a major producer of plastics which sits at odds to sailing\u2019s many clean ocean campaigns. Ratcliffe is also a proponent of fracking, was a prominent Brexit supporter, and moved to Monaco in 2020.
\nPhoto: C. GREGORY\/INEOS Team UK
\nRatcliffe the team owner
\nShortly after the announcement was made in 2018,\u00a0Yachting World sat down with Ratcliffe and Ainslie at the Royal Yacht Squadron in Cowes, the club the British challenge represents, to find out more about their partnership \u2013 and how Ratcliffe sees his role as a major investor in sports.
\n\u201cThe America\u2019s Cup\u00a0sits in the \u2018intriguing challenge\u2019 box,\u201d he told Yachting World. \u201cIt\u2019s not a big INEOS thing, because INEOS is not a consumer brand so we\u2019re not dependent on doing these kind of things \u2013 or F1 or anything else \u2013 for our business to be successful. It\u2019s not going to help us sell petrochemicals or oil or gas.
\n\u201cBut it\u2019s a sensational challenge really to bring the America\u2019s Cup back to the UK. It\u2019s just a British thing really, we\u2019re Brits and it would be marvellous to see the Cup come back here \u2013 finally.\u201d
\n\u201cThe America\u2019s Cup is\u00a0different, but it\u2019s the equivalent to some of the business challenges we\u2019ve had.\u00a0Our approach is similar.\u00a0
\n\u201cWith Ben and the team we hover a bit like a shareholder. We like to have a sense of what\u2019s going on and who\u2019s doing what, and whether the money\u2019s being spent sensibly, but it is a very light touch really.
\nArticle continues below\u2026<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAmerica\u2019s Cup: Ainslie goes all-in with Mercedes F1<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBen Ainslie\u2019s America\u2019s Cup Challenge \u2013 now INEOS Britannia, formerly INEOS Team UK \u2013 launched the first stage of its\u2026<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAinslie gets \u00a3110 million backing from Ineos for second bid to win America\u2019s Cup with BAR team<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAnglo-Swiss chemicals and manufacturing company Ineos will fully fund Ben Ainslie\u2019s America\u2019s Cup team in what is the biggest \u2013\u2026<\/p>\n
And as for his approach to backing a sports team? \u201cIt\u2019s not that different to working in business really \u2013 it has to be fun, and you have to get on with people, otherwise why do it? Because we don\u2019t need to do it.\u00a0But there\u2019s all those parallels with business: the journey, the challenge.
\n\u201cIf we buy a business we would hope to double the profits within five years, it\u2019s a journey.\u00a0This is no different really. The people are just as committed and intense in both.\u201d
\nAinslie added: \u201cIt\u2019s been really fascinating learning how the INEOS business is run and how to relate that to a sports team with the core goal of winning the Cup. How everything comes back to that one core goal, those decisions and not getting distracted by other factors.\u201d
\nAlthough the British team did not win the America\u2019s Cup in 2021, the partnership was renewed and the team, now named INEOS Britannia, are currently building up towards the 2024 America\u2019s Cup.
\nThis time the team is also Challenger of Record, which means that Ratcliffe and Ainslie have increased influence over the event\u2019s format.<\/p>\n
INEOS cycling, Formula 1 and marathons
\nShortly after this massive deal, in 2019, Ratcliffe \u2013 who is a keen cyclist as well as a passionate mountaineer \u2013 purchased the Team Sky cycling franchise, subsequently rebranded Team INEOS and then INEOS Grenadiers. They since won the 2019 Tour de France and 2021 Giro d\u2019Italia.
\nWith the use of cyclors, or pedal-powered grinders, on the America\u2019s Cup AC75s there have been plenty of cross-overs between the cycling and sailing teams, with some of the America\u2019s Cup team grinders training with Grenadiers in Palma.
\nRatcliffe set out to make history in 2019 when he backed the INEOS 1.59 Challenge, a no-stones-unturned bid to smash the 2-hour marathon time. Eliud Kipchoge broke the two-hour barrier at a special event in Austria, setting a new time of 1hr 59m 40s.
\nINEOS and Jim Ratcliffe also went into Formula 1 when, in February 2020, INEOS became principal partners of Mercedes AMG F1, signing a five-year agreement with the team.
\nThe America\u2019s Cup has often been called the Formula 1 of sailing, and it was no surprise when Ainslie\u2019s INEOS Britannia team partnered with Mercedes AMG F1 in 2021.
\nThe linking of one of the world\u2019s most successful motorsport teams, with the British squad sailing squad, and the potential to share key personnel and design resources, was seen as a major advantage to Ainslie in his bid to win the America\u2019s Cup. Other America\u2019s Cup teams followed suit with similar partnerships.
\nJim Ratcliffe and football
\nRatcliffe has long been linked to a number of football clubs. He has owned of FC Lausanne-Sport, a Swiss Super League football club, since 2017 but he has also been linked to a number of Premier League football clubs.
\nFollowing the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, sanctions on Roman Abramovich forced him to put Premier League side Chelsea F.C. up for sale. Ratcliffe made \u00a34.25 billion bid to buy the club but this was rejected.
\nMost recently, in January 2023 INEOS announced publicly that it had entered into the formal process of bidding for Manchester United after the current owners announced it was looking for new investors.<\/p>\n
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Insight into Jim Ratcliffe the billionaire sports team owner investing in a variety of sports from the America’s Cup to F1 and Football Sir Jim Ratcliffe is a huge backer of major sports teams, inducing the British bid for the … <\/p>\n