12/03/2017
NEWS STORY
Ferrari has become the first team to take Liberty Media up on its offer of shares.
The sport's new owner is keen to see the participants - the teams - become stakeholders initially offering $1.1bn in shares in the parent company.
When nobody appeared interest, and in the wake of the completion of the deal which saw Liberty take control of F1, the offer was scaled back and $400m in shares was put on offer, with the American company setting a July deadline.
Again, there was little interest, or so it seemed.
Ferrari's annual report reveals that the Italian outfit has sold its 0.25% stake in F1 in exchange for $3.1m in Liberty shares and $11.4m cash.
"As a consequence of the change of control, Ferrari exercised the options… and on 22 February 2017 received approximately $11.4 million in cash (including $2.7 million of previously undistributed dividends), 145 thousand Liberty Media Corporation shares and $911 thousand of Liberty Media exchangeable notes," stated the report.
Since Liberty's shares were priced at $21.26 when offered to Delta Topco's shareholders, this gives Ferrari $3.1m worth of equity, which when combined with the $8.7m received in cash, puts an $11.8m value on the Italian company's options.
The shares are being offered to the team "as part of an induced change in how we operate together," said chief executive, Greg Maffei, Liberty seeking to do away with a current system which sees the top teams not only take the biggest slice of the sport's prize money but also wield enormous influence in various aspects of the sport not least their refusal to agree to a curb on spending.
If other teams do not follow Ferrari's example and buy shares they will be repurchased by Liberty, though Maffei insists that he is "far more interested in getting the right deal with the teams and setting the structure of the races. Much more cost-containment and much more fairness in prize money."
This is not the first time Ferrari has broken ranks, indeed, the Italian company was offered the Delta Topco stock when it committed to continue in F1 from 2013 to the end of 2020.