The business story
Born in Failsworth, Lancashire in 1952; chemical engineering at Birmingham and an MBA from London Business School. Founded INEOS in 1998 and grew it via debt-financed acquisitions of non-core chemical assets from ICI, BP, Norsk Hydro and others, including the transformational 2006 Innovene deal. Moved his tax residence to Monaco in September 2020; knighted in 2018. In February 2024 acquired ~25% of Manchester United (later toward ~28.9%) and took control of sporting operations.
Before INEOS
Jim Ratcliffe was born on 18 October 1952 in Failsworth, Lancashire, and rose through the classic post-war meritocratic route. He attended Beverley Grammar School, studied chemical engineering at the University of Birmingham, and later took an MBA at London Business School. The pairing mattered. He could assess a chemical plant as an engineer and a leveraged acquisition as a financier, and that dual fluency became the foundation of everything he built.
Before striking out alone he worked in the chemicals industry and in private equity, learning how industrial assets are bought, financed and run. By his mid-forties he chose to apply that experience on his own account.
Building INEOS
INEOS was founded in 1998, starting with the purchase of Inspec and a former BP Chemicals site in Antwerp. From there the strategy stayed remarkably consistent. Large oil and chemical groups such as ICI, BP and Norsk Hydro were being pushed by shareholders to concentrate on core businesses and sell peripheral chemical operations. Ratcliffe bought those unwanted units, often with substantial borrowing, and ran them with tighter cost control than their former parents had applied.
The defining transaction came in 2006, when INEOS acquired BP's Innovene division, a business far larger than INEOS itself at the time. The deal lifted the company into the top tier of global chemical producers, spanning petrochemicals, polymers and specialty products. In 2010, with finances strained after the financial crisis, INEOS moved its headquarters to Switzerland; it opened a London headquarters in 2015.
Ratcliffe was knighted in 2018, and INEOS steadily raised its public profile through sport: cycling, sailing, a sub-two-hour marathon attempt and football on the continent. In February 2024 he acquired roughly a quarter of Manchester United, later moving toward about 28.9 percent, and took charge of the club's sporting operations.
