Look for Lotus F1 to go belly-up or be sold

F1 bankrupting Gerard Lopez

(GMM) Alarming news about the financial health of Lotus team owner Gerard Lopez has emerged.

Together with Eric Lux, fellow Luxembourger Lopez heads the investment company Genii Capital, which owns the Enstone based team.

After finishing a strong fourth in the last two constructors' world championships, Lotus is currently a mere eighth after a particularly difficult first half to the 2014 campaign.

And according to the Luxembourg newspaper Tageblatt, the financial news is even worse.

Accounts just filed with the commercial register for 2012 show an annual loss of almost EUR 53 million, with company equity listed as minus EUR 128 million.

The report said that just one year ago, the loss was only 55 million, while total debt is now shown at a whopping EUR 185 million.

Tageblatt also claims that although company filings are due no later than seven months after the end of the financial year, Genii only filed the accounts for 2011 and 2012 in mid-July of this year.

The accounts for 2013 have not yet been filed.