Jim Ratcliffe

Sir James Arthur Ratcliffe FIChemE (born 18 October 1952) is a British billionaire, chemical engineer and businessman. Ratcliffe is the chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of the INEOS chemicals group, which he founded in 1998. The company is estimated to have had a turnover of $65 billion in 2021.[1] He does not have a high public profile, and was once described by The Sunday Times as "publicity shy".[2][3] In May 2018, Ratcliffe was the richest person in the UK, with a net worth of £21.05 billion.[4] As of May 2023, the Sunday Times Rich List 2023 estimated his net worth at £29.688 billion, making him the second wealthiest figure in the UK.[5] In September 2020, Ratcliffe officially changed his tax residence from Hampshire to Monaco, a move that it is estimated will save him £4 billion in tax.[6]

Sir

Jim Ratcliffe

FIChemE
Ratcliffe in 2013
Born
James Arthur Ratcliffe

(1952-10-18) 18 October 1952
Failsworth, England
Alma mater
Occupation(s)Chairman and CEO, Ineos
SpouseAmanda Townson (div.)
Children3

Early life and education

Ratcliffe was born in Failsworth, Lancashire (now in Greater Manchester),[7] the son of a father who started out as a joiner, and a mother who was an accounts office worker. He was raised in a council house in the town until the age of 10, when the family moved to East Yorkshire. He was educated at Beverley Grammar School.[8][9] He studied chemical engineering at Birmingham University, gaining a BSc, and later gained an MBA from London Business School in 1980. Ratcliffe's father eventually ran a factory making laboratory furniture.[10]

Career

Ratcliffe's first job was with oil giant Esso, but he decided to broaden his skills into finance by studying management accounting, studying for an MBA at London Business School from 1978 to 1980 (he donated £25m to the school in 2016).[10] In 1989, he joined US private equity group Advent International.[11]

INEOS
Main article: Ineos

Ratcliffe was a co-founder of Inspec, which leased the former BP Chemicals site in Antwerp, Belgium.[10][12] In 1998, Ratcliffe formed INEOS in Hampshire to buy-out Inspec and the freehold of the Antwerp site.[13]

From this small base, using high-yield debt to finance deals, Ratcliffe started buying unwanted operations from groups such as ICI and BP, selecting targets based on their potential to double their earnings over a five-year period. In 2006 INEOS bought BP's refining and petrochemical arm Innovene, giving INEOS refineries and plants in Scotland, Italy, Germany, France, Belgium, and Canada.[2][3]

In April 2010, Ratcliffe moved INEOS's head office from Hampshire to Rolle, Switzerland, decreasing the amount of tax the company paid by £100m a year.[14][15]

In 2015, Ratcliffe opened the UK headquarters of the chemicals and energy group in Knightsbridge, London, along with gas and oil trading, and other functions, saying he was "very cheerful about coming back to the UK". He was pleased with UK policy, London as a business base, and untroubled by the prospect of Brexit. Full year 2015 EBITDA was €577 million compared to €253 million for 2014.[16]

In the Sunday Times Rich List 2018, he was named as the richest man in the UK, with a net worth of £21.05 billion.[4]

In February 2019, it was announced that INEOS would invest £1bn in the UK oil and chemical industries, to include an overhaul of the Forties pipeline system that is responsible for transporting a significant percentage of the UK's North Sea oil and gas.[17]

On 1 May 2019, Ratcliffe criticised the current government rules that say fracking in Britain must be suspended every time a 0.5 magnitude tremor is detected, which has led to a de facto ban on fracking, calling the government "pathetic".[18]

Ineos Automotive Ltd. was founded by Ratcliffe, initially to build a replacement for his Land Rover Defender. He unsuccessfully approached Jaguar Land Rover to buy the tooling to continue production after the original model was cancelled. Instead, in 2019 Ratcliffe formed partnerships with BMW and Magna Steyr to design and build a similar vehicle under the codename Projekt Grenadier.

Energy transition

In October 2021, Ratcliffe announced plans to invest more than €2bn (£1.7bn) into electrolysis projects to make zero-carbon green hydrogen across Europe.[19] He said the first units will produce clean hydrogen through the electrolysis of water in Norway, powered by renewable electricity, and will serve as a hub to provide gas for the country's transport industry. This will be followed by projects in Germany and Belgium. Ratcliffe also intends to invest in France and the UK, where his hydrogen business will be headquartered.

Environmental pollution

In March 2019, INEOS said it would close its Middlesbrough manufacturing plant unless it is allowed to 'defer compliance' with EU rules designed to prevent air and water pollution.[20] An analysis of data from the Environment Agency (EA) also reveals the plant clocked up 176 permit violations between 2014 and 2017.[20] An EA spokesperson said: "air emissions are well over legal limits and this poses a risk to the environment".[21] INEOS director Tom Crotty said the firm "cannot justify" the investment required to comply with EU air and water pollution rules due to come into force in the coming years.[22]

INEOS has carried out small projects in bio ethanol production using Clostridium bacteria, but it has had problems because the syngas has levels of hydrogen cyanide too high for the bacteria to survive.[23] INEOS sold the Florida plant to Alliance Bio-Products Inc. in 2017.[24]

Sport

Ratcliffe is keen on sport and in 2013, he completed the Marathon Des Sables across the Sahara Desert,[25] and he has founded a charity "Go Run for Fun", encouraging thousands of children aged between five and ten to get active by creating celebrity-driven events.[26] He supported the 2019 INEOS 1:59 Challenge, a successful effort by Eliud Kipchoge to run the classic marathon distance (42.195 kilometres or 26 miles 385 yards) under 2 hours.[27][28] Another charity, the Jim Ratcliffe Foundation, helped build a new ski clubhouse in Courchevel to help underprivileged children learn to ski.

He has also bought football clubs, FC Lausanne-Sport, a Swiss Super League football club in 2017.[29] Through INEOS, he bought OGC Nice in 2019 from Chinese-American entrepreneur Chien Lee.[30]

Following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, sanctions on Roman Abramovich, long-term owner of Premier League side Chelsea F.C., forced him to put the club up for sale. Ratcliffe made £4.25 billion bid to buy the club but this was rejected.[31] Chelsea FC were eventually sold to US businessman Todd Boehly.[32]

In August 2022 Ratcliffe expressed interest in buying the Premier League football team Manchester United,[33] a team he has supported since childhood.[34] The following January, INEOS announced publicly that it had entered into the formal process of bidding for Manchester United after the current owners announced it was looking for new investors.[35][36]

In sailing, Ratcliffe partnered with Ben Ainslie to form INEOS Team UK to compete for the 36th America's Cup in 2021 with Ratcliffe reportedly investing over £110 million in the project.[37]

Ratcliffe purchased the Team Sky cycling franchise in 2019, subsequently rebranded Team INEOS.[38] Their first competitive race under the new INEOS sponsorship, was the 2019 Tour de Yorkshire. They subsequently won the 2019 Tour de France and 2021 Giro d'Italia with the Colombian rider Egan Bernal.

In 2020 INEOS became principal partners of Mercedes AMG F1, signing a five-year agreement with the team.[39]

In 2021 Greenpeace criticized a decision by New Zealand Rugby to accept six years of sponsorship from INEOS as being inconsistent with the country's "clean green" values.[40]

Honours and awards

In May 2009, Ratcliffe was granted an honorary fellowship by the Institution of Chemical Engineers citing "his sustained leadership in building the INEOS Group."[41] In 2013 he received the Petrochemical Heritage Award.[42] Ratcliffe was appointed Knight Bachelor in the 2018 Birthday Honours for services to business and to investment.[43]

Personal life

Ratcliffe has two sons with previous wife Amanda Townson.[10] He has one daughter[44] from a previous relationship, with Maria Alessia Maresca, an Italian tax lawyer.[45][10]

Ratcliffe lives in Monaco and Hampshire, England.[46] In May 2017, he submitted his fifth plan, less ambitious than the first four, to build a "luxury home" at Thorns Beach, near Beaulieu, on the Hampshire coast, which would replace an existing two-bedroom bungalow.[47] In September 2020, Ratcliffe officially changed his tax residence from Hampshire to Monaco, a move that it is estimated will save him £4 billion in tax.[6] He owns an estate on the shores of Lake Geneva in Switzerland[48] and the hotels, Le Portetta (Courchevel, France) and Lime Wood (Hampshire, England).[49]

Ratcliffe enjoys sport and physical adventure, and is a lifelong Manchester United supporter.[34] He has made expeditions to the North and South Poles, as well as a three-month-long motorbike trek in South Africa. In 2013, he completed the Marathon Des Sables across the Sahara Desert,[25] and he has founded a charity "Go Run for Fun", encouraging thousands of children aged between five and ten to get active by creating celebrity-driven events.[26][28] Another charity, the Jim Ratcliffe Foundation, helped build a new ski clubhouse in Courchevel to help underprivileged children learn to ski. The Charity Commission for England and Wales has opened an investigation into this charity over a regulatory compliance concerns after a donation to a private ski resort.[50]

Ratcliffe is a Eurosceptic, once said; "As a business, INEOS supported the common market, but not a United States of Europe."[51] He is opposed to the "layers and layers" of European legislation that he feels is making European economies increasingly cumbersome and inefficient.[52][53] He has publicly expressed his disdain for politicians, criticising them for the way they negotiated the Brexit withdrawal agreement and are often happy to "lunch around with bankers", but less keen to discuss economic issues with industrialists and business owners.[54]

Ratcliffe has owned two super yachts, Hampshire and Hampshire II. His first yacht was built as Barbara Jean by Feadship. In 2012, he took delivery of the 78-metre (256 ft) Feadship Hampshire II, built by Royal Van Lent, which he still owns.[55]

References
  1. "About | INEOS Group". www.ineos.com.
  2. Dominic O'Connell (29 April 2007). "Ratcliffe in richest top 10". Times Online. London. Retrieved 22 June 2008.
  3. Grainne Gilmore (21 April 2008). "Business big shot: Jim Ratcliffe". The Times. London. Retrieved 22 June 2008.
  4. Watts, Robert, ed. (13 May 2018). "The Rich List: At last, the self-made triumph over old money". The Sunday Times. Retrieved 13 May 2018.
  5. "Sir Jim Ratcliffe net worth — Sunday Times Rich List 2023". Retrieved 21 May 2023.
  6. Neate, Rupert (25 September 2020). "Sir Jim Ratcliffe, UK's richest person, moves to tax-free Monaco". The Guardian. Retrieved 25 September 2020.
  7. Walsh, David (14 May 2023). "Sir Jim Ratcliffe may take over Man United but his record is ordinary". The Times. Retrieved 31 May 2023.
  8. "The deal that made Jim Ratcliffe Britain's richest man". 3 June 2018 – via www.thetimes.co.uk.
  9. Bell, Alex (10 September 2015). "Meet billionaire Ineos boss Jim Ratcliffe, one of Manchester's most successful entrepreneurs of all time". men.
  10. Pfeifer, Sylvia (20 November 2014). "Jim Ratcliffe". Financial Times. Retrieved 30 May 2023.
  11. "The quiet entrepreneur who is as wealthy as Richard Branson, but nowhere near as famous". Liverpool Daily Post. 17 March 2010. Retrieved 26 November 2013.
  12. Marsh, Virginia; Rivlin, Richard (18 September 1999). "Ratcliffe in joint bid for ICI's acrylics arm". Financial Times. London, UK. p. 26.
  13. "INTERNATIONAL BRIEFS; New Company Purchases Antwerp Unit of Inspec". The New York Times. 15 April 1998. Retrieved 30 May 2023.
  14. Fortson, Danny; Grimston, Jack (11 April 2010). "Tycoon flees UK to save £100m tax". The Times. Archived from the original on 8 October 2021. Retrieved 28 March 2022.
  15. Fortson, Danny (17 July 2016). "Chemicals tycoon Ratcliffe heads home from Swiss tax exile". The Times. Archived from the original on 10 August 2021. Retrieved 28 March 2022.
  16. "Q4, 2015 Trading Statement". www.ineos.com. Retrieved 19 March 2018.
  17. "UK's richest man in £1bn oil and chemicals investment". BBC. 27 February 2019. Retrieved 27 February 2019.
  18. BBC World News Services (1 May 2019). "Fracking boss calls government 'pathetic'". Retrieved 1 May 2019.
  19. Burton, Lucy (18 October 2021). "Jim Ratcliffe snubs Britain in €2bn green hydrogen scheme". The Telegraph – via www.telegraph.co.uk.
  20. Webster, Ben (23 March 2019). "Sir Jim Ratcliffe's firm Ineos made threat over dirty air rules". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 4 April 2019.
  21. Huntley, David (23 March 2019). "Billionaire's firm 'threatened to close' Teesside plant". gazettelive.
  22. "INEOS threatens to close UK plant unless it can dodge EU pollution rules". Unearthed. 23 March 2019. Retrieved 24 March 2019.
  23. "On the Mend: Why INEOS Bio isn't producing ethanol in Florida : Biofuels Digest". 5 September 2014.
  24. Stoll, I. Katharina; Boukis, Nikolaos; Sauer, Jörg (2020). "Syngas Fermentation to Alcohols: Reactor Technology and Application Perspective". Chemie Ingenieur Technik. Wiley. 92 (1–2): 125–136. doi:10.1002/cite.201900118.
  25. "Out Of This World". www.ineos.com. Retrieved 4 August 2022.
  26. Heller, David (16 July 2015). "Ineos owner Jim Ratcliffe: "I'm very cheerful about coming back to the UK"". London Evening Standard. Retrieved 19 July 2015.
  27. Robinson, Joshua (11 October 2019). "The Billionaire, the Olympian and the Quest for the Sub-2-Hour Marathon". Wall Street Journal.
  28. Northedge, Richard (11 August 2007). "Ratcliffe, the alchemist". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 27 August 2018.
  29. Wilson, Bill (13 November 2017). "Chemicals giant Ineos buys Swiss football team". Retrieved 9 June 2018.
  30. "Nice: British billionaire Jim Ratcliffe's Ineos buys Ligue 1 club". BBC Sport. 26 August 2019. Retrieved 27 August 2019.
  31. Bosher, Jacob Whitehead and Luke. "Chelsea takeover bid by Ratcliffe rejected". The Athletic. Retrieved 4 August 2022.
  32. "Government approves Boehly's Chelsea takeover". BBC Sport.
  33. "British billionaire Jim Ratcliffe is interested in buying Manchester United". CNN. 18 August 2022.
  34. Cary, Tom; Morgan, Tom (23 November 2022). "Sir Jim Ratcliffe is a lifelong Man Utd fan who will not be afraid of battle with the Glazers". The Telegraph. Retrieved 30 May 2023.
  35. "Sir Jim Ratcliffe confirms he is in running to buy Manchester United". The Guardian. 17 January 2023. Retrieved 18 January 2023.
  36. "Manchester United up for sale as Glazers announce plans to leave Old Trafford". The Guardian. 22 November 2022. Retrieved 18 January 2023.
  37. Hodgetts, Roy (5 September 2018). "Jim Ratcliffe: Britain's richest man plots America's Cup coup". CNN. Retrieved 26 November 2018.
  38. Cary, Tom (19 March 2019). "Ineos takeover of Team Sky provokes anger from environmental campaigners". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 27 August 2019.
  39. Smith, Luke (10 February 2020). "Mercedes Formula 1 team reveals expanded partnership with INEOS". Autosport.com. Retrieved 11 February 2020.
  40. Corlett, Eva (28 July 2021). "Greenpeace criticises New Zealand rugby deal with petrochemical company Ineos". The Guardian. London, United Kingdom. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 28 July 2021.
  41. "Press release: Ion and Ratcliffe awarded Honorary Fellowships". IChemE. 13 May 2009. Archived from the original on 2 June 2009.
  42. "Petrochemical Heritage Award". Science History Institute. 31 May 2016. Retrieved 24 March 2018.
  43. "No. 62310". The London Gazette (Supplement). 9 June 2018. p. B2.
  44. UK, INEOS TEAM. "INEOS TEAM UK name their first race boat for the 36th America's Cup 'Britannia'". INEOS TEAM UK. Retrieved 3 November 2022.
  45. "South Pole 100 (2011)". Ice Axe Expeditions. Retrieved 22 March 2019.
  46. "Forbes profile: James Ratcliffe". Forbes. Retrieved 6 November 2019.
  47. Yandell, Chris (10 May 2017). "Billionaire businessman Jim Ratcliffe has submitted fifth plan to build luxury home overlooking Solent". Southern Daily Echo. Retrieved 19 March 2018.
  48. Fortson, Danny. "Call my bluff". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 3 November 2022.
  49. Walsh, Dominic. "Ineos chemicals boss Sir Jim Ratcliffe sells his stake in Pig Hotels". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 3 November 2022.
  50. Neate, Rupert (16 January 2023). "Watchdog investigates charity set up by UK billionaire over £16m ski clubhouse". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 January 2023.
  51. "Ineos' Vote of Confidence in After Brexit". INEOS. December 2016. Retrieved 17 February 2019.
  52. Pickard, Jim (19 July 2015). "Ineos chief makes case for UK to leave European Union". Financial Times.
  53. "Ineos factory once planned for Wales will now be located in France instead". INEOS. December 2020. Retrieved 15 December 2020.
  54. Watts, Robert (17 February 2019). "Lucky Jim Ratcliffe always has a surprise up his sleeve". The Times. Retrieved 17 February 2019.
  55. "Motor Yacht Hampshire II". Super Yacht Fan. Retrieved 1 December 2014.
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