Sir Jim Ratcliffe now stands as a giant amongst mankind and industrial scale, who is linked to high-profile elite sporting acquisitions. The British billionaire is best known as the founder and majority owner of the chemical giant INEOS and as a co-owner of Manchester United Football Club, with his fortune waxing and waning with strategic acquisitions and market cycles. According to Forbes, Ratcliffe is now estimated to be worth about $17.5 billion, mostly from his equity stake in INEOS and associated assets.Ratcliffe’s partner, Catherine Polli, has joined him at public and club appearances, but she is an almost completely private figure, with a net worth that does not appear to be independently published in major wealth trackers such as Forbes or Bloomberg. This has led public estimates to typically place the joint home fortune at around $18 billion, mostly from Ratcliffe’s wealth. Although Polli has kept a somewhat low profile, her background in private banking has kept her near the money, more or less.
How Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s $17.5 billion fortune is assessed
The billionaire rankings from Forbes are among the best-known global estimates of personal wealth, based on a mix of public disclosures, stock-market valuations, market analyses of private companies, and estimates for private companies. For Ratcliffe, the lion’s share of his $17.5 billion in wealth comes from INEOS, the chemicals and energy group he first set up in 1998.INEOS is also private, and that means valuations by comparison are based on comparable company analysis, industry, and debt rather than the daily stock price. As such, Ratcliffe’s fortune can change with the price of energy, global demand for petrochemicals, and movements in currency. It’s also worth noting that the Sunday Times Rich List figures, which are released in the spring each year, can vary slightly due to differences in methodology and foreign exchange rates, but Forbes puts him squarely in the upper echelons of Britain’s richest.Independent of this, Catherine Polli does not appear separately on notable billionaire lists, so no separately published fortune is credibly attributed to her.
How Sir Jim Ratcliffe built his fortune through INEOS and sport
Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who started out in chemical engineering, transitioned into private equity and industrial deal-making. His defining strategy was to scoop up underperforming assets at large corporates and drive efficiency under the INEOS corporate umbrella. For nearly three decades, that method forged INEOS into one of the world’s biggest chemicals companies, spanning petrochemicals, refining, and specialty materials.This industrial dollar stream freed Ratcliffe to branch out into game and lifestyle investments. He has funded pro cycling and F1 partnerships and football clubs through INEOS, notably securing a minority stake in Manchester United and then taking the reins of football operations there.
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