MANCHESTER UNITED'S bidding D-Day has arrived – but there is still intrigue over the potential existence of unnamed would-be owners.
So far, only the Ineos petro-chemical group, headed by Britain’s richest man Sir Jim Ratcliffe, and Qatari banker Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad al-Thani have publicly confirmed their bids.
In addition, US hedge fund Elliott Management visited Old Trafford earlier this month for talks with the club and the Glazer family’s chosen deal-makers Raine Group.
Elliott, though, are only interested in providing funding for another owner, rather than taking control of the Red Devils itself.
Sheikh Jassim is seeking a full buy-out of the club while Ineos – which is believed to be willing to partner with other investors – has so far targeted the Glazers’ 69 per cent stake.
But ahead of this evening’s deadline for “non-indicative” bids, there is again speculation of other contenders who have so far remained in the shadows.
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Whether these bids are real or smokescreens should become clearer over the next few days.
There is the possibility of Raine announcing a “preferred” bidder by the beginning of next week.
What is likely is that both Ineos and Sheikh Jassim, both of whom sent delegations for intensive talks at Old Trafford last week, will have to increase their opening bids to remain in contention.
It is understood that the two rivals both valued the club at around £4.5billion.
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That is significantly less than the £6bn valuation the Glazers are holding out for.
One option would be for Raine, on behalf of the Glazers, to open up a third bidding round, essentially holding an auction.
However, the possibility of the Glazers opting to take on extra financing to separate the commercial arm of the club from the football one and scrapping the entire sales process has not been discounted.
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