Jim Ratcliffe Biography
Jim Ratcliffe is a billionaire chemical engineer and businessman from the United Kingdom. Ratcliffe is the chairman and CEO of the Ineos chemicals group, which he founded in 1998 and still owns two-thirds of, and which is expected to generate $15 billion in revenue in 2019.
How Old is Jim Ratcliffe? – Age
He is 69 years old as of 18 October 2021. He was born in 1952 in Failsworth, United Kingdom. His real name is James Arthur Ratcliffe FIChemE.
Jim Ratcliffe Family – Education
Ratcliffe was born in a council house to a joiner father and an accounts office worker mother. He lived there until the age of ten. His father eventually owned a factory that produced laboratory furniture. Ratcliffe moved to East Yorkshire with his family when he was 10, and he attended Beverley Grammar School and lived in Hull until he was 18. Ratcliffe earned a degree in chemical engineering from the University of Birmingham in 1974.
Jim Ratcliffe Wife
Ratcliffe married Amanda Townson in 1985, and they have two sons, George and Samuel. In 1995, they divorced. From a previous relationship with Maria Alessia Maresca, an Italian tax lawyer, he has one daughter. Catherine Polli is his current partner.
Jim Ratcliffe House
Ratcliffe splits his time between Monaco and Hampshire, England. In May 2017, he submitted his fifth plan, which was less ambitious than the first four, to build a “luxury home” on the Hampshire coast at Thorns Beach, near Beaulieu, to replace an existing two-bedroom bungalow. Ratcliffe officially changed his tax residence from Hampshire to Monaco in September 2020, saving him an estimated £4 billion in tax. He also owns a luxurious home in the Swiss village of Gland on the shores of Lake Geneva, next to Michael Schumacher’s. His home is on the Napoleon Bonaparte Imperial estate, which also belongs to Princess Alix Napoléon.
Jim Ratcliffe Yachts
Hampshire and Hampshire II are two of Ratcliffe’s superyachts. Feadship built his first yacht, Barbara Jean. In 2012, he took delivery of the 78-meter-long (256-foot-long) Feadship Hampshire II, which he still owns.
How much is the owner of Ineos worth? – Jim Ratcliffe Net Worth
He has an estimated net worth of $28.2 billion, as of 2022. With a net worth of £21.05 billion as of May 2018, he was the richest person in the United Kingdom. In April 2020, the Bloomberg Billionaires Index estimated his net worth to be $28.2 billion, ranking him 55th in the world and second in the United Kingdom. Ratcliffe officially changed his tax residence from Hampshire to Monaco in September 2020, saving him an estimated £4 billion in tax.
Which Football clubs does Jim Ratcliffe own?
He also owns two football clubs: Lausanne-Sport, which he purchased in 2017 while Ineos was still based in Switzerland, and Nice, his other “local” club in southern France, 13 miles west of Monaco.
How did Jim Ratcliffe make his money?
His first job was with the oil company Esso, but he decided to broaden his skills in finance by studying management accounting at London Business School from 1978 to 1980 (he donated £25 million to the school in 2016). He joined the Advent International private equity firm in 1989.
Jim Ratcliffe Ineos
Inspec, which leased the former BP Chemicals site in Antwerp, Belgium, was co-founded by Ratcliffe. Ratcliffe established Ineos in Hampshire in 1998 to acquire Inspec and the freehold of the Antwerp site. Ratcliffe began buying unwanted operations from groups such as ICI and BP from this small base, using high-yield debt to finance deals, and selecting targets based on their potential to double their earnings over a five-year period. Ineos acquired BP’s refining and petrochemical arm, Innovene, in 2006, giving the company refineries and plants in Scotland, Italy, Germany, France, Belgium, and Canada. Ratcliffe relocated Ineos’s headquarters from Hampshire to Rolle, Switzerland, saving the company £100 million in tax each year.
Ratcliffe said he was “very cheerful about coming back to the UK” when he opened the UK headquarters of the chemicals and energy group in Knightsbridge, London, in 2015, along with gas and oil trading and other functions. He was pleased with UK policy, and London as a business base, and was unconcerned about Brexit. EBITDA for the full year 2015 was €577 million, up from €253 million in 2014.
With a net worth of £21.05 billion, he was named the richest man in the UK in the Sunday Times Rich List 2018. Ineos announced in February 2019 that it would invest £1 billion in the UK oil and chemical industries, including an overhaul of the Forties pipeline system, which transports a significant portion of the UK’s North Sea oil and gas. On May 1, 2019, Ratcliffe criticized current government rules that state that fracking in Britain must be suspended whenever a 0.5 magnitude tremor is detected, resulting in a de facto ban on fracking.
Jim Ratcliffe Chelsea
Arsenal, Chelsea, and Tottenham’s owners have been warned about what could happen at Manchester United as a takeover hopeful attempts to rouse Sir Jim Ratcliffe. Ratcliffe, who had previously been linked to Chelsea, denied claims that he would buy a Premier League club in the same month. He reversed course in April 2022, making a £4.25 billion bid for the club after Roman Abramovich put it up for sale.
Greenpeace criticized New Zealand Rugby’s decision to accept six years of sponsorship from Ineos as inconsistent with the country’s “clean green” values in July 2021. Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, sanctions imposed on Roman Abramovich, long-term owner of Premier League club Chelsea F.C., forced him to sell the club. Ratcliffe made a £4.25 billion bid to purchase the club, but it was turned down. Despite the rejection, Ratcliffe was still optimistic about a takeover. Chelsea FC was eventually sold to Todd Boehly, a US businessman.