Background and career
Sir James Arthur Ratcliffe (born 18 October 1952) is a British billionaire, chemical engineer, and businessman. Ratcliffe is the chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of the INEOS chemicals group, which he founded in 1998. In May 2018, Ratcliffe was the richest person in the UK, with a net worth of £21.05 billion. As of May 2023, the Sunday Times Rich List 2023 estimated his net worth at £29.6 billion, making him the second wealthiest figure in the UK. In September 2020, Ratcliffe officially changed his tax residence from Hampshire to Monaco, a move that it is estimated will save him £4 billion in tax. In February 2024, Ratcliffe became a minority shareholder in the English football club Manchester United and gained control over sporting operations.
Ratcliffe was born in Failsworth, Lancashire (now in Greater Manchester), where his father worked as a joiner and went on to run a factory that made laboratory furniture. His mother worked in an accounts office. He was raised in a council house in the town until the age of 10, when the family moved to East Yorkshire. He was educated at Beverley Grammar School. In 1974, he graduated with a 2:1 in chemical engineering from the University of Birmingham.
After graduating, Ratcliffe worked at the oil firm BP but was fired after 3 days. The reason given for his dismissal was that he had eczema, which made him unfit to work around toxic chemicals. This was a medical condition that BP had overlooked prior to Ratcliffe joining. After leaving BP he took up a position as a trainee accountant at a pharmaceuticals company. A few years later, Ratcliffe joined oil giant Esso. From 1978 to 1980, Esso funded his MBA at the London Business School. Ratcliffe went on to work for the fabric and chemicals producer Courtaulds, where he stayed until his mid-thirties. In 1989, he joined US private equity group Advent International.
Ratcliffe was a co-founder of Inspec, which leased the former BP Chemicals site in Antwerp, Belgium. In 1998, Ratcliffe formed INEOS in Hampshire to buy-out Inspec and the freehold of the Antwerp site. From this small base, using high-yield debt to finance deals, Ratcliffe started buying unwanted operations from groups such as ICI and BP, selecting targets based on their potential to double their earnings over a five-year period. In 2006, INEOS bought BP's refining and petrochemical arm Innovene, giving INEOS refineries and plants in Scotland, Italy, Germany, France, Belgium and Canada. The company acquired Norsk Hydro's polymers business in 2007, allowing INEOS to expand its presence in the European polymers market, particularly in polyvinyl chloride (PVC) production, significantly strengthening its market position. In April 2010, Ratcliffe moved INEOS's head office from Hampshire to Rolle, Switzerland, cutting the amount of tax the company paid by £100 million a year. In 2015, Ratcliffe opened the UK headquarters of the chemicals and energy group in Knightsbridge, London, along with gas and oil trading, and other functions, saying he was "very cheerful about coming back to the UK". He was pleased with UK policy and London as a business base, and untroubled by the prospect of Brexit. Full year 2015 EBITDA was €577 million compared to €253 million for 2014. In the Sunday Times Rich List 2018, he was named as the richest man in the UK, with a net worth of £21.05 billion. In February 2019, it was announced that INEOS would invest £1bn in the UK oil and chemical industries, to include an overhaul of the Forties pipeline system that is responsible for transporting a significant percentage of the UK's North Sea oil and gas. On 1 May 2019, Ratcliffe criticised the current government rules that say fracking in Britain must be suspended every time a 0.5 magnitude tremor is detected, which has led to a de facto ban on fracking, calling the government "pathetic". Ineos Automotive was founded by Ratcliffe, initially to build a replacement for his Land Rover Defender. He unsuccessfully approached Jaguar Land Rover to buy the tooling to continue production after the original model was cancelled. Instead, in 2019 Ratcliffe formed partnerships with BMW and Magna Steyr to design and build a similar vehicle under the codename Projekt Grenadier. The 5-door Grenadier Station Wagon went into production in October 2022, followed by the launch of the Quartermaster utility vehicle in 2023.
In October 2021, Ratcliffe announced plans to invest more than €2 billion (£1.7 billion) into electrolysis projects to make zero-carbon green hydrogen across Europe. He said the first units will produce clean hydrogen through the electrolysis of water in Norway, powered by renewable electricity, and will serve as a hub to provide gas for the country's transport industry. This will be followed by projects in Germany and Belgium. Ratcliffe also intends to invest in France and the UK, where his hydrogen business will be headquartered.
In March 2019, INEOS said it would close its Middlesbrough manufacturing plant, unless it is allowed to "defer compliance" with EU rules designed to prevent air and water pollution. An analysis of data from the Environment Agency (EA) also reveals the plant clocked up 176 permit violations between 2014 and 2017. An EA spokesperson said: "Air emissions are well over legal limits and this poses a risk to the environment". INEOS director Tom Crotty said the firm "cannot justify" the investment required to comply with EU air and water pollution rules due to come into force in the coming years. INEOS has carried out small projects in bio ethanol production using Clostridium bacteria, but it has had problems because the syngas has levels of hydrogen cyanide too high for the bacteria to survive. INEOS sold its US plant to Alliance Bio-Products in 2017.
