potential New Man UTD Owner Emerges
Finnish entrepreneur Thomas Zilliacus has entered the race to buy Manchester United.
Zilliacus’ bid was revealed following a deadline for the second round of revised offers on Wednesday 22nd March.
Zilliacus, who is currently based in Singapore, wants to buy half of the club with the other half bought by fans, who would be involved in decision making at the club.
The businessman joins the list of public bidders for the Premier League club, which includes Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s Ineos and Chairman of Qatari bank QIB, Sheikh Jassim Bin Hamad Al Thani.
Zilliacus said, commented, “Any sport club ultimately should belong to its fans. My bid is built on equality with fans.
“The current development, where billionaire sheiks and oligarchs take over clubs and control them as their personal playgrounds is not a healthy trend.
“The current market value of the club is just under $3.9bn (£3.17bn). That means that if every one of the fans of the club would join in buying the club, the total sum per fan would amount to less than $6.
“My group will finance half of the sum needed to take over the club, and will ask the fans, through a new company that is being set up for this specific purpose, to participate for the other half. If every fan joins it means less than $3 per fan.”
Zilliacus also plans to give fans a unique say in how the club is running by developing an app where supporters can “participate and cast” their vote “when deciding on footballing matters relating to the club”.
The founder and Chairman of social media group novaM Group will try and buy United through XXI Century Capital, an investment firm owned by his holding company.
So far, Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s Ineos bid is the only other confirmed revised offer for the Red Devils, but it is thought Sheikh Jassim has also submitted another bid, despite not confirming it publicly.
It is also understood US investment company Elliott has made an offer to purchase a minority stake, irrespective of who ends up owning the club.
The sale of Manchester United is being managed by the Raine Group, the US investment banking firm that oversaw the recent sale of Chelsea.
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