British billionaire Ratcliffe completes purchase of minority stake in Man Utd

MANCHESTER, United Kingdom, Feb 21 (AFP): British billionaire Jim Ratcliffe said becoming a co-owner of Manchester United is a "great honour" and "responsibility" after his purchase of a minority stake was finalised on Tuesday.

The 71-year-old's investment, which will give him control of football operations at the 20-time English champions, was approved by the Premier League and English Football Association last week.

It was announced on December 24 last year that Ratcliffe had agreed to buy a 25 per cent stake in United from unpopular owners the Glazer family in a deal worth around o1.02 billion ($1.3 billion).

Following the completion of that deal, the founder of petrochemicals giant INEOS has invested a further $200 million to take his total stake to 27.7 percent and will inject $100 million more by the end of this year to enable investment in infrastructure at Old Trafford.