News which arose this weekend that McLaren had been given a seat on the board of the sport’s holding company alongside Ferrari and Red Bull, came amidst pre-float preparations as Formula One gets ready for a listing on the Singapore stock exchange this summer.
The move by the sport’s second most successful team, follows on from the news last month that Ferrari and Red Bull had already agreed to join the board of Formula One, in exchange for greater controls and share of the sport’s $500 million annual earnings.
At the time we suggested that it wouldn’t be long before McLaren and Mercedes joined Ferrari and Red Bull, but Mercedes has been holding out for more favourable terms in the new Concorde Agreement – the sport’s commercial contract between the rights holder and teams, which will run from 2013 until 2020.
“I don’t see much (racing) history in this team which would justify a bigger bonus” Ecclestone told German magazine auto, motor und sport, after his meeting with Daimler AG CEO Dieter Zetsche last week.
The article in thisismoney.co.uk, written by Christian Sylt and Caroline Reid of Formula Money, said that F1’s board had not yet voted to approve an initial public offering of the company’s stock, but that the sport’s majority owner, private equity firm CVC Capital, is working towards a flotation in June.
This could be delayed until later in the year or postponed even further, depending on market conditions and whether there are problems in gaining approval from the board of F1’s Jersey-based parent, Delta Topco.
A decision to go ahead will be sought at an extraordinary board meeting next month.
Written By
Steve Davies
Steve is an investor, private equity advisor and former Partner at KPMG, PwC and Bain. Most importantly he's a life-long car enthusiast, mountain biker and active sports enthusiast. He designs and builds technology platforms and is the architect behind Transmission.
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