US buyout financier Ares Management Corp have reportedly offered funds to help a potential bidder buy Manchester United.
The club has been put up for sale by current owners, the Glazer family, with a soft deadline set to welcome formal bids by 10pm last Friday. That evening saw both Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Qatari banker Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani table their respective offers.
At the start of this week, hedge fund firm Elliott Investment Management reportedly signalled their interest to to fund a potential takeover bid, and Reuters has now reported that another US-based company are looking to facilitate a buyout.
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Ares, which oversees around £290billion worth of assets, is said to have offered funds to one bidder who had turned down the funding because the terms were 'unattractive'.
The buyout financier group has previous reported interest in facilitating a Premier League takeover, with reports in 2020 that they were backing Miami-based investor Kapital Football Group in a potential buyout of an English top-flight side.
They were also reported to have backed two failed bids for Chelsea last year before the Stamford Bridge club were eventually bought by a consortium led by Todd Boehly for £4.25billion.
A recent fund worth £3.1billion had been raised by Ares to be dedicated to sports investment recently, and some of that money has already been put into Atletico Madrid and Inter Miami.
Sheikh Jassim and Ratcliffe remain the two frontrunners as the only bidders to have gone public with their interest, having both released statements by last Saturday.
Al Thani confirmed in his statement on Friday night that his bid was for a 100% stake in the club, promising to load no debt on the club and invest in the infrastructure neglected for so long by the Glazers.
Ratcliffe, born in Manchester and a boyhood Red, confirmed his interest via a bid from his INEOS group, stating his bid was for a 'majority ownership'.
The statement added: "We want a Manchester United anchored in its proud history and roots in the North-West of England, putting the Manchester back into Manchester United and clearly focusing on winning the Champions League."
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