29/08/2005
NEWS STORY
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You'd be wrong if you thought the really big F1 battles are being fought out on track between Renault and McLaren at present, for it seems that the serious competition is going on in anonymous boardrooms as various parties prepare to do battle for their slice of the cake.
Over the weekend, two various F1 buy-outs have come to light.
According to the Sunday Telegraph, Robin Saunders, a former high-flyer with German bank West LB, has held extensive negotiations with Bernie Ecclestone, as she lines up a possible £830m ($1.5bn) buy-out of F1.
It's understood that through her company, Clearbrook Capital Partners, which has backing from a number of (unidentified) financial institutions, Saunders is looking to purchase the 75% of F1 owned by the three banks - Bayerische Landesbank, JP Morgan Chase and Lehman Brothers - then sell on the stake to the teams which would purchase this slice of the F1 'cake'.
It's understood that Ecclestone would retain his 25% - held in a trust for his family - since Saunders, and presumably her backers, and indeed the teams, would want to keep the Englishman on board.
Ecclestone has long said that he is keen to see the teams purchasing a share of F1, and is said to be keen on Saunders' proposal.
Saunders and Ecclestone have worked together previously, for she was instrumental, courtesy of WestLB, in rescuing the F1 supremo's Euro-bond issue in 1999.
Meanwhile, according to The Business newspaper, James Murdoch, Chief Executive of BSkyB, claims to have been approached by a consortium, comprising American and British private equity firms, that wishes to buy-out F1.
According to The Business, the consortium that approached Murdoch is one of several lining up bids for F1, though one of these, Li Ka-shing's Tom Group, was dismissed by Ecclestone. Tom Group subsequently said that it was "premature" to talk of a buy-out of F1, but admitted that it was following the situation.
There is plenty going on behind the scene at present, and it would appear that Ecclestone is looking at all options.
We previously reported that Ecclestone, has filed for a trademark application for the GP1 logo as part of his "contingency plan" should Formula One, as we know it, run into problems.
To add to the excitement, there is the fact that Formula One Holdings (FOH) and Formula One Administration (FOA) were in court on Friday morning.
The reason for the hearing was simply to give the banks an order for the points they demanded in their last writ against Bambino Holdings, which owns 25% of F1, and Ecclestone. Namely, this now means they are entitled to add more directors on the board of FOA and attempt to get the voting share back
The next big story will be seeing who is appointed to the role as new directors.
All in all, these are interesting times for F1, certainly worthy of a novel or maybe even a movie. Perhaps we'll hear from Turk Thrust.
As Dr Mike Lawrence always says: Follow the money.