How Jim built the fortune
Sir Jim Ratcliffe made his fortune by spotting that large oil and chemical companies often treated parts of their business as unloved side operations. In 1998 he founded Ineos to buy one such plant, an ethylene oxide site in Antwerp, Belgium, from BP. Ineos ran it more tightly than its former owner and used the cash it generated to repay debt. The same formula, repeated many times, created the company: buy mature chemical assets at reasonable prices with borrowed money, cut costs, and keep the business private so decisions can be made quickly.
Over the following decade Ineos bought plants and businesses from companies including ICI, BASF and Dow. The biggest deal came in 2005, when it acquired Innovene, BP's olefins and refining unit, for around 9 billion US dollars, turning Ineos into one of the largest chemical makers in the world almost overnight. The heavy borrowing nearly broke the company during the 2008 financial crisis, but it survived after renegotiating its loans and benefited from the recovery that followed.
Ratcliffe owns the majority of Ineos, with his long time partners Andy Currie and John Reece holding most of the rest. Because the company is private, the profits it earns from producing plastics, solvents and other basic chemicals flow largely to the three of them. In later years Ratcliffe used this wealth to branch into cars, sport, oil and gas, and fashion.
Companies and holdings
Ineos today operates dozens of businesses in many countries. Major parts of Ratcliffe's empire include:
- Ineos chemicals, producing olefins, polymers, oxides and other materials at sites such as Grangemouth in Scotland, Cologne in Germany and Antwerp in Belgium.
- Ineos Energy, which owns oil and gas fields in the North Sea and elsewhere.
- Ineos Automotive, maker of the Grenadier off road vehicle, which started production in 2022 at a factory in Hambach, France.
- A minority stake of about a quarter in Manchester United, acquired in 2024, with control over football operations.
- The French club OGC Nice, the Ineos Grenadiers cycling team and the Ineos Britannia sailing team.
Ineos also took a stake in the Mercedes Formula One team in 2020 and owns the outdoor clothing brand Belstaff. Its large ethane cracker project in Antwerp, known as Project One, is one of the biggest chemical investments in Europe in decades.
Early life and career
Ratcliffe was born in 1952 in Failsworth, near Manchester, and spent his early childhood in a council house before his family moved to the Hull area. His father was a joiner. He studied chemical engineering at the University of Birmingham and later earned an MBA at London Business School while working.
He began his career at Esso, the British arm of Exxon, and later worked at the textile and chemicals group Courtaulds and at the private equity firm Advent International. That experience in financial deals convinced him to buy businesses himself. In 1992 he led a buyout of BP's speciality chemicals operations, forming Inspec, which he ran and later left before founding Ineos. He was knighted in 2018 for services to business and investment.
Philanthropy and public life
Ratcliffe is a well known supporter of sport and outdoor activity. He has backed The Daily Mile, a programme encouraging schoolchildren to walk or run for fifteen minutes each day, which has spread to schools in many countries. Ineos also sponsored the 2019 attempt by Eliud Kipchoge to run a marathon in under two hours, which succeeded in Vienna. He has donated to research, including a large gift to the University of Oxford to establish a centre for antimicrobial resistance research.
He has been a public supporter of Brexit and of shale gas extraction, positions that attracted controversy, especially after he moved his residence from the UK to Monaco in 2020. His purchase of a stake in Manchester United made him a prominent figure among football fans, and his decisions on staff cuts and ticket prices at the club have generated both support and criticism. He is also a keen long distance adventurer and has completed treks to both poles.