BOEHLY WINS RACE FOR CHELSEA
American set to win takeover battle despite Ratcliffe’s late offer for club
AMERICAN tycoon Todd Boehly is set to become Chelsea’s new owner despite a last-gasp attempt to hijack the process by Britain’s richest man. Sir Jim Ratcliffe, owner of petrochemicals company Ineos, yesterday made an offer which he said would include an investment of £1.75billon over 10 years to develop
Stamford Bridge in addition to the £2.5bn valuation of the club — meaning the total offer is worth £4.25bn. But Boehly’s group has won the race and have been given the green light to close a deal understood to be worth £3.5bn.
AMERICAN tycoon Todd Boehly is on course to become the new Chelsea owner following a dramatic day that saw Britain’s richest man Sir Jim Ratcliffe make a shock last-gasp attempt to hijack the bidding process.
Boehly’s group have won the race to be named as the preferred bidders for the Stamford Bridge club after Raine — the New Yorkbased bank facilitating the sale — and Chelsea gave them the green light to close a deal understood to be worth £3.5billion in total.
The news comes after Sportsmail revealed yesterday that Boehly’s consortium — which also includes Swiss billionaire Hansjorg Wyss — were leading the race heading into the closing stages of the process.
All that is left now is for the American-Swiss consortium to be officially confirmed as the preferred bidders — but that is said to be a formality.
Yesterday, fellow American businessman Steve Pagliuca was informed that his group were out of the race, while sources close to the final remaining consortium led by British tycoon Sir Martin Broughton also indicated that they were unsuccessful and that Boehly’s bid had been given the nod.
Sources close to the process have indicated to Sportsmail that the Boehly group will now have a ‘period of time’ — understood to be between five and seven days — to ratify an exclusivity agreement to indicate their full intentions to press ahead with a takeover.
If that period of time elapses without an agreement, Ratcliffe’s 11th-hour attempt to gazump the three remaining bidders could yet come into play.
Ratcliffe’s offer to take over from Roman Abramovich has infuriated the three shortlisted parties, who have been involved in the bidding process since its inception.
They believe Ratcliffe has disregarded the rules set out by Raine during the start of the process, all of which they have abided by.
Indeed, there was some confusion last night over whether Ratcliffe’s offer could even be legally considered by Raine under the specific terms of the process, which were agreed by all shortlisted parties.
Radcliffe, who owns chemicals company Ineos, said yesterday he had held discussions with Chelsea chairman Bruce Buck on Thursday before making his lastgasp offer.
Ratcliffe said his offer included an investment of £1.75bn over 10 years to develop Stamford Bridge and other club infrastructure as well as sustaining the team at a high level.
This is in addition to the £2.5bn valuation of the club the prospective new owners have to meet — taking the total offer to £4.25bn. The three other bidders all tabled offers in the region of £2.5bn, with varying degrees of investment.
The Boehly-led consortium have indicated they are willing to stump up an additional £1bn of future investment in the club.
A statement from Ineos read: ‘This is a British bid, for a British club. We believe that a club is bigger than its owners who are temporary custodians of a great tradition. With responsibility to the fans and the community. We will invest in Stamford Bridge to make it a world-class stadium, befitting of Chelsea.
‘This will be organic and ongoing so that we will not move away from the home of Chelsea and risk losing the support of loyal fans. We will continue to invest in the team to ensure we have a first-class squad of the world’s greatest players, coaches and support staff, in the men’s and women’s games.
‘And we hope to continue to invest in the academy to provide opportunity for talented youngsters to develop into first-class players.’