Two leading credit ratings agencies raised red flags over the Ineos Group weeks before it emerged that the billionaire industrialist would make another 200 redundancies at Manchester United and allegedly cut sponsorship payments to the All Blacks rugby team, blaming “the deindustrialisation of Europe”.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe faces growing concerns over the financial health of his chemicals empire as its debt pile is forecast to reach almost €12bn (£10bn) this year and his sporting interests including Manchester United and New Zealand rugby hit crisis point.
Fitch Ratings and Moody’s, which provide financial health checks for most big companies, said Ratcliffe’s chemicals business had racked up debts that were between five to six times larger than the company’s annual earnings.
They added that Ineos could take longer than expected to repay those debts in part because of weakness in the European chemical industry after years of rocketing energy costs after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine dramatically cut exports of gas to across Europe.
Moody’s described Ratcliffe’s chemicals business as “weakly positioned” and said there were risks that the plans to build the refinery known as Project One could cause the company’s costs to rise.
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