Jim Ratcliffe, the British billionaire become patron of the sport

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The dream of many people is to combine their business with the passions that motivate them in life. Without a doubt, billionaires have it much easier than average or at least they can do it in a big way. This is the case of Jim Ratcliffe (67 years), a self-made man, whom many British media consider the richest man in the United Kingdom and who in recent years has launched to create a sports empire because he is motivated by Challenges and sports as much as his petrochemical company, Ineos, is excited about, which he himself refers to as "the largest company in the world you have never heard of."

His last investment: partner with the Mercedes Formula 1 team so that the name of his company shines in the car that will drive the champion Lewis Hamilton next season. A whim for which he will pay 150 million euros in the five years for which the agreement has been fixed. An emotional decision but that Ratcliffe expects to write off because he believes that supporting the team that reaps the most success on the Formula 1 grid will help open markets to his company in places like China and the Middle East, areas where this sport has many followers. The agreement was publicized in a ceremony that took place in London on February 10, in which the businessman smiled, without hiding his satisfaction, next to Toto Wolff, executive director of the Mercedes F1 team.

Before, the founder, president and executive director of the petrochemical group Ineos, of which he owns 60% of the shares, had already made his forays into other sectors of the sports world. First it was the Laussane football team, which it acquired in 2017 and which is currently in the top positions of the Swiss league. Then he tried to buy Chelsea for almost 2.4 billion euros, although this operation never came to a close. And last August Ineos acquired Nice, a French team for which he paid more than 106 million euros and where he placed his brother Bob as supervisor.

Jim Ratcliffe, founder and president of INEOS (left) and Toto Wolff, executive director of the Mercedes F1 team, on February 10 in London. Steven Paston Getty

Also last year the business group became the salvation table for a successful cycling team but in financial trouble, the Sky where the star Chris Froome runs. Almost 54 million euros turned Team Sky into Team Ineos. A team that demonstrated its potential by winning the Tour de France in its first year under the brand of the Ratcliffe company.

2018 was the year in which the entrepreneur chose to enter the world of racing. And the challenge was clear in this field: if Ineos had to join a competition, it could not be other than the Copa América. More than 143 million euros of investment with one purpose: to get the United Kingdom to win this competition that has resisted for 170 years. The 36th edition of the Copa América next year will tell if a more competitive ship and the sails with the name of the British billionaire company printed on them, are able to get it.

There is still another sport in which Ineos has seen potential: athletics and specifically the Kenyan athlete Eliud Kipchoge. The petrochemical company financed with 17 million euros the organization of the test in which the athlete managed to finish a marathon in less than two hours for the first time in history. The brand is not valid for the IAAF, the governing body of athletics worldwide, but for the fans and for Jim Ratcliffe who was exultant after finishing the test held in October 2019: "This marathon seemed impossible. I am the happiest man in the world. The final stretch of Eliud was a glorious moment, "said the billionaire turned into patron of the sport.

Son of a carpenter and an administrative, Jim Ratcliffe grew up in an official protection floor near Manchester and graduated in Technical Engineering from the University of Birmingham thanks to grants from the British Government. He began his fortune by buying and selling what big companies no longer wanted. Linked in its first professional years to the oil company BP and then to Esso, it made the leap to the world of investment funds in 1989 through Advent International and in 1992 all its fortune was played to acquire the product division with another partner BP chemists in Hythe, England for 50 million euros. Two years later the value of the company was already 125 million.

In 1998 he founded Ineos, which currently employs 18,500 people and generates sales for more than 55,000 million euros. Jim Ratcliffe's personal fortune is estimated at around 23.5 billion euros. His confessed passions are sport and his country, although in this respect the British have ended up accusing him of being less than a traitor, since in August 2018 he announced his decision to move his business to Monaco to benefit from his tax advantages.

A controversial decision that unleashed the wrath of compatriots and politicians who did not understand this attitude from those who had received the title of Sir for their services to the country, especially in the case of one of the entrepreneurs who most fervently decided the hard Brexit. Former British Liberal Democrat Vince Cable came to say that he "presents himself as a great patriot while he decides to move to a famous tax haven." Cable that also has the title of Sir added about that royal honor granted to Ratcliffe: "It is very unfortunate that, when we make a businessman a national hero for investing in the Kingdom, he disappears in Monaco."

Ratcliffe maintains the company's headquarters in London by image, but it must be thought that it will further minimize the negative effects of its decision if it makes the United Kingdom flag fly in the background in future sporting triumphs, whether it is sailing, cycling, athletics, football or in the Formula 1 circuits. Business is business, and passions, homelands and sports, something else quite different.