Formula 1 May Be Forced To Delay IPO Due To Problems Plaguing Marussia, Caterham (Update)
The sport's majority shareholder CVC wanted to float formula one in Singapore in 2012, but the plans were delayed amid market uncertainty and Bernie Ecclestone's high profile legal troubles.
Those concerns have since lifted, and the financial news service Bloomberg claims that CVC was back on track to float F1 early in 2015.
The report said CVC has commissioned Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and UBS to work on the possible initial public offering.
But now two teams, Marussia and Caterham, have collapsed, and other struggling small outfits Lotus, Sauber and Force India are complaining loudly about F1's controversial income distribution model.
Oliver Weingarten, the former general secretary of the F1 teams alliance FOTA, said CVC will "want the negativity surrounding the sport to go away, and for there to be some stability, before they go to the market".
11/13/14 Formula 1 "may be forced to delay plans" for an initial public offering a second time after two teams sought protection from creditors, according to Alex Duff of Bloomberg. The collapse of Marussia, which said on Nov. 7 that it fired 200 workers, and a struggle by Caterham to make the Nov. 21 season-ending race in Abu Dhabi could "disrupt the timing of an IPO, according to Oliver Weingarten, former general secretary of the Formula One Teams Association."
Weingarten, now the CEO of London-based sports agency OW Advisory Ltd., said that F1 majority shareholder CVC will probably "want the negativity surrounding the sport to go away, and for there to be some stability, before they go to the market."
CVC, which owns about 35.5% of F1, is working with Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and UBS AG on a "possible initial public offering of the series in Singapore" in early '15. CVC shelved a '12 IPO plan, citing market conditions, and "revived them" after F1 CEO Bernie Ecclestone settled a German corruption case with a $100M payment in August.
Ecclestone and CVC spokesperson James Olley did not "immediately return calls seeking comment." Bloomberg