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The final tranche of funding promised by Manchester United co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe has been confirmed.
As part of the £1.2bn deal to acquire 27.7% of the Glazer family’s shareholding in the football club at the end of 2023, Ratcliffe had promised an additional sum of nearly £250m for infrastructure development at United.
That transaction occurred in December, but the confirmation of the move this week arrived on Companies House, with the date backdated to December 10, which showed that Red Football Limited, the parent company of United, had issued 100 new shares at a value of nearly £80m.
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The move was one that saw the shares issued to Ratcliffe, or potentially INEOS, so as to absorb the final tranche of funding that had been provided to the club by the British billionaire.
Ratcliffe’s minority stake acquisition in December 2023 saw him handed control over football strategy at the club, with the Glazers further distancing themselves despite remaining majority owners.
As is almost always the case when new shares are allocated at football clubs, the move was not done to provide a war chest for transfer business this month, or in the summer.
The aim, largely, was to provide some £50m in capital to aid the Carrington training ground redevelopment, while additional monies will help ease any cashflow issues and provide working capital for such things as the maturity of transfer instalments that are soon to be paid.
While it didn’t have an additional bearing on United’s PSR position, the move has served to strengthen the club’s balance sheet for the 2024/25 financial year.
That will be the final year that counts towards PSR regulation and the three-year rolling assessment period before Premier League clubs adopt the squad cost ratio rule, similar to the one that UEFA have in place for its European competitions.
United sailed fairly close to the wind when it came to PSR compliance for the 2023/24 period but were able to stay under the radar and avoid any punishment from the Premier League.
There isn’t likely to be too much of an issues being PSR compliant for the final assessment period for 2024/25.