Jim Ratcliffe

Sir James Arthur Ratcliffe (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.

In May 2018, Ratcliffe was the richest person in the UK, with a net worth of £21.05 billion. As of May 2023, the Sunday Times Rich List 2023 estimated his net worth at £29.6 billion, making him the second wealthiest figure in the UK. 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.

In February 2024, Ratcliffe became a minority shareholder in the English football club Manchester United and gained control over sporting operations.

Ratcliffe has attracted controversy regarding his views on sensitive political issues such as Brexit and more recently immigration, which at times have been described as far-right. In a February 2026 interview, Ratcliffe said that the UK had been "colonised by migrants", a statement which was criticised by some football fan groups, union leaders, anti-racism campaigners and politicians including the UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

Early life and education

Ratcliffe was born in Failsworth, Lancashire (now in Greater Manchester), where his father worked as a joiner and went on to run a factory that made laboratory furniture. His mother worked in an accounts office. 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. In 1974, he graduated with a 2:1 in chemical engineering from the University of Birmingham.

Career

After graduating, Ratcliffe worked at the oil firm BP but was fired after 3 days. The reason given for his dismissal was that he had eczema, which made him unfit to work around toxic chemicals. This was a medical condition that BP had overlooked prior to Ratcliffe joining. After leaving BP he took up a position as a trainee accountant at a pharmaceuticals company.

A few years later, Ratcliffe joined oil giant Esso. From 1978 to 1980, Esso funded his MBA at the London Business School (he donated £25 million to the school in 2016). Ratcliffe went on to work for the fabric and chemicals producer Courtaulds, where he stayed until his mid-thirties. In 1989, he joined US private equity group Advent International.

INEOS

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

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.

The company acquired Norsk Hydro's polymers business in 2007, allowing INEOS to expand its presence in the European polymers market, particularly in polyvinyl chloride (PVC) production, significantly strengthening its market position.

In April 2010, Ratcliffe moved INEOS's head office from Hampshire to Rolle, Switzerland, cutting the amount of tax the company paid by £100 million a year.

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 and 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.

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.

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.

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".

Ineos Automotive 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. The 5-door Grenadier Station Wagon went into production in October 2022, followed by the launch of the Quartermaster utility vehicle in 2023.

Energy transition

In October 2021, Ratcliffe announced plans to invest more than €2 billion (£1.7 billion) into electrolysis projects to make zero-carbon green hydrogen across Europe. 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. An analysis of data from the Environment Agency (EA) also reveals the plant clocked up 176 permit violations between 2014 and 2017. An EA spokesperson said: "Air emissions are well over legal limits and this poses a risk to the environment". 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.

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. INEOS sold its US plant to Alliance Bio-Products in 2017.

Sport

Ratcliffe is keen on sport, and in 2013, he completed the Marathon Des Sables across the Sahara Desert. 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. 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.

He purchased Lausanne-Sport, a Swiss Super League club, in 2017. Through INEOS, he bought Nice in 2019 from Chinese-American entrepreneur Chien Lee.

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

In August 2022, Ratcliffe expressed interest in buying the Premier League club Manchester United, a team he has supported since childhood. 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. On 24 December 2023, Manchester United announced that Ratcliffe had acquired a 25 percent stake in the club, marking a significant development, as INEOS Sport assumed control over football operations. The purchase was completed in February 2024. He went on to oversee the culling of up to 450 jobs , as well as stopping the policy of free meals for club staff.

In sailing, Ratcliffe partnered with Ben Ainslie to form INEOS Team UK to compete (unsuccessfully) for the 36th America's Cup in 2021, with Ratcliffe reportedly investing over £110 million in the project. INEOS Britannia is the British Challenger of Record representing Royal Yacht Squadron Ltd for the 37th America's Cup, being held in Barcelona in October 2024.

In January 2025 Ben Ainslie split from Ineos Britannia America's Cup sailing team.

Ratcliffe purchased the Team Sky cycling franchise in 2019, subsequently rebranded Team INEOS. 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 July 2025, David Rozman, a long-serving carer for the INEOS Grenadiers cycling team, left the Tour de France following an International Testing Agency (ITA) investigation. The investigation concerns alleged 2012 text messages between him and convicted doping doctor Mark Schmidt.

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

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

Ratcliffe has since overseen the culling of up to 450 jobs at United since he bought a minority stake, as well as stopping the policy of free meals for club staff. Manchester Evening News Article