31/05/2010
NEWS STORY
One of the toughest parts of keeping track of Formula One team finances is knowing when their annual results and other key documents will be filed. Each company which runs a team gives deadlines for its documents to be sent to Companies House but often they are delivered early and can arrive months in advance. A good case in point is Bernie Ecclestone's companies which recently filed their accounts more than four months early. Pitpass' business editor Chris Sylt has to check the Companies House records on a daily basis to catch these filings so any tip-offs to make the process smoother are most welcome.
One such tip-off came recently from Williams when its chairman Adam Parr surprisingly revealed that its accounts to 31 December 2009 will be formally submitted at the beginning of June. Why is this surprising? Well Parr didn't stop there as he also announced that the team's revenues fell 13.8% to £108.3m with its profit more than halving to £4.5m.
With RBS, Williams' biggest-spending sponsor, leaving the team at the end of the year, the outlook doesn't seem rosy, particularly since the details 'revealed' by Parr are presumably the more favourable ones from the accounts. True, Parr says that "we've got the majority of our budget covered for next year" but this makes one wonder why some of the reports based on his details add that Williams "would still love to have" a budget cap.
Noticeable by their absence from Parr's summary are the not so small details of precisely who owns how much of Williams following the acquisition of a stake in the team by Toto Wolff last year and also whether the highest-paid director, believed to be Frank Williams, took a pay cut for the fourth year running.
Sylt is on the edge of his seat and all will be revealed on Pitpass and in Sylt's newspaper article about the accounts as soon as they are released. At least we know there isn't long to wait.