UK’s richest man switches gear to buy Team Sky
LONDON: Britain’s richest man, reclusive chemicals tycoon Jim Ratcliffe, emerged from the shadows on Tuesday to buy the world’s most successful cycling group, as Team Sky transforms itself into Team Ineos.
Broadcasting giant Sky had in December announced it would end its decades-long link with Team Sky, which won eight Grand Tour cycling victories – including six Tour de France titles.
Brexit-backing billionaire Ratcliffe, who has reportedly shifted his fortune to Monaco for tax reasons, will in May launch Team Ineos, named after the chemicals giant that he founded, with the hope of extending the cycling team’s global dominance.
The 66-year-old Ineos chairman has assets worth an estimated £21 billion (USUS$27.8 billion, 24.5 billion euros), placing him top of the 2018 Sunday Times rich list.
He was only 18th on the previous year’s list but the value of his company, of which he owns 60 per cent, soared to propel him up the ranks and earning him a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II.
It is a long way from his humble beginnings, growing up in social housing in Manchester, northwest England.
After earning a chemistry degree from the University of Birmingham and an MBA from the London Business School, Ratcliffe began a 40-year career in the business world at investment company Advent International before creating Ineos in 1998.
The company went on to become an industrial juggernaut in a country increasingly dominated by the service sector.
The group now has annual sales of US$60 billion and employs over 18,000 people in 24 countries.
Chemicals manufactured by Ineos are found in various everyday products, from shower gel to medication.
Ineos grew through acquisitions, including the US$9 billion purchase of petrochemical group Innovene, a subsidiary of BP.
He acquired the giant Grange mouth refinery in Scotland as part of the deal, where he was soon plunged into a battle with unions.
Ineos’ tactics have led to accusations of asset stripping, but Ratcliffe told the BBC in 2016 that it merely pursued “management with more cost effectiveness”.
Ratcliffe is also a strong advocate of shale gas, organising in late 2016 the arrival from the United States of the first cargo destined for Britain.
The entrepreneur has tried his luck at finding reserves at home, but progress has been slow in a country reluctant to embrace the shale revolution.
Ratcliffe has continued to diversify his group, entering into the automotive sector by building the Ineos Grenadier, aimed to be a successor to the rugged Land Rover Defender car.
The group will decide in the coming months whether assembly will take place in Britain or on the continent.
The marathon-running entrepreneur has already invested in the Bel staff motorcycle clothing specialist and Swiss football club FC Lausanne, despite being a Manchester United fan.
Ratcliffe also ploughed £110 million into British sailor Ben Ainslie’s Americas Cup team.
Media reports meanwhile surfaced this week that Ratcliffe was mulling a potential takeover of Premier League football club Chelsea, owned by Russian tycoon Roman Abramovich.
Despite his business success, Ratcliffe has long-remained a secretive and ‘lonely’ character, earning nicknames such as ‘JR’ –in reference to the manipulative oil baron in the US TV saga ‘Dallas’ – and James Bond villain ‘Dr. No’, according to a 2014 Financial Times profile.