A major shareholder in Manchester United has warned investors are in the dark over the future of the club as billionaire Jim Ratcliffe seeks to buy a major stake.
Speaking almost a year after the controlling Glazer family said it would consider selling part of the Premiership club, Nick Train said talks over the deal have been ‘extraordinarily convoluted and lengthy’.
The fund manager told the Financial Times he could only ‘assume’ the deal was progressing.
Field of dreams: Billionaire businessman Jim Ratcliffe is seeking to buy a major stake in Manchester United
Train’s Lindsell Train investment fund owns a 20 per cent shareholding in United.
But the Glazers control the company through so-called supervoting B shares, which do not trade on the open market.
Ratcliffe and his Ineos chemicals group are closing in on an agreement under which they would own roughly 25 per cent of the club.
The deal is set to value United at £5.3billion and would allow the Glazers and other shareholders to sell down their stakes.
Train said: ‘It would be wonderful if our investors end up seeing that value accorded to the shares that we own on their behalf.’
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