Ratcliffe is the founder and majority owner of Ineos, a closely held chemicals manufacturer. The London-based company has more than 26,000 employees, operates in 29 countries and has revenue of about $65 billion. He also owns a minority stake in Premier League football club Manchester United.
Ratcliffe's fortune derives from his majority stake in closely held Ineos, one of the world's largest chemical producers. The London-based company is valued based on a calculation of the group's average enterprise value-to-Ebitda multiple of three publicly traded peers: LyondellBasell Industries NV, Saudi Basic Industries Corp and Solvay SA.
The Ebitda figure used in this analysis has been calculated by Bloomberg from the five-year average Ebitda of subsidiary Ineos Group Holdings between 2019 and 2023. This average is 38% higher than the subsidiary's 2023 unadjusted Ebitda figure. The same increase has been applied to the group's calculated Ebitda figure for 2023 to approximate the group's five-year average Ebitda figure.
The company has revenue of about $65 billion, and has 26,000 employees across almost 30 countries, according to its website.
The valuation was updated on May 10, 2024, for 2023 Ineos results, leading to a decline of about $2.5 billion.
Ratcliffe completed in February 2024 the purchase of at least a 25% stake in Premier League football club Manchester United. A liability is included to reflect the cost of the transaction.
Ratcliffe also owns a superyacht, Hampshire II, which is valued using the current asking prices for similar length vessels from the same ship yard, according to a person familiar with the boats who asked not to be identified as he works in the industry and the information is private.
Richard Longden, a spokesperson for Ineos, declined to comment on Ratcliffe's net worth.
James Arthur Ratcliffe was born on Oct. 18, 1952 in Manchester, England, according to filings with the UK's Companies House. After studying chemical engineering at Birmingham University he worked for oil company Esso and completed his MBA at London Business School.
He joined private equity firm Advent International in 1989 and three years later invested his life's savings to buy BP's specialty chemicals unit, according to a 2007 profile in the Telegraph. He became chief executive officer and a slew of acquisitions followed with the company, Inspec, listing on the London Stock Exchange in 1994. He left Inspec four years after that to lead the buyout of its Belgian chemicals plant, which he named Ineos.
More acquisitions followed and within a decade Ineos had become one of the largest chemical companies in the world. Ratcliffe attracted criticism in 2013 when a stand-off with the union at Ineos' Grangemouth plant attracted national attention. The billionaire extracted a three-year pay freeze from his workers in exchange for keeping the plant open. Ratcliffe moved back to the UK in 2016, six years after relocating to Switzerland for tax reasons.
He moved to Monaco in 2018, two years after backing Britain's exit from the European Union.