Man Utd takeover deadline EXTENDED as Ratcliffe and Qataris bid around £5bn – and wait to see if Glazers REALLY want out

MANCHESTER United bidders are now playing a waiting game to discover if the Glazer family REALLY want to sell – after the club EXTENDED its deadline for offers.

Both the two declared contestants, Britain’s richest man Sir Jim Ratcliffe and his Ineos petro-chemicals group and Qatari banker Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad al-Thani made improved bids ahead of the planned 9pm deadline set by deal organisers and US financiers Raine Group.

It is understood that both the public bidders have increased their initial £4.5bn bid to around the £5bn mark, a world record for any sporting franchise.

But it emerged last night that Raine are now holding open the bidding process until the end of this week – the close of New York business on Friday – in an apparent attempt to entice more potential owners out of the woodwork.

And it still remains to be seen if a bid in that area is enough to confirm to the Glazers, who have set a valuation of £6bn, that they should sell up.

While both Sheikh Jassim and Ineos believe they are the only serious contenders, Raine have indicated up to another eight groups have expressed an interest.

Only one of those, US hedge fund Elliott Management, has declared itself.

Unlike Ineos – who want to buy out the Glazers’ 69 per cent share – and Sheikh Jassim, who envisages a full takeover, Elliott are merely seeking to forward funds to potential bidders.

It is more than possible that the other interested parties are also seeking to provide funding rather than actually take over the club but giving bidders an extra 48 hours suggests Raine believe there are genuine options open to them.

But even the two main bidders are understood to still harbour doubts over whether the Glazers will sell unless their high valuation is met in full.

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United’s share price on the New York Stock Exchange rose more than four per cent in early trading on Wednesday to reach a “market capitalisation” of £3.33bn.

As SunSport revealed earlier this month, one option for the Glazers is use external funding to help to hive off the club’s commercial and merchandising arm into another branch of the club or simply take United off the market.

Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk