Ecclestone Says F1 Is Ready For IPO (Update)

UPDATE One of the men behind the proposed flotation of F1 on the Singapore Stock Exchange "has revealed the plans may again be put on hold until next year," according to the PA. CVC Capital Partners co-Founder & co-Chair Donald Mackenzie has now suggested that "the IPO may yet be delayed further."

Mackenzie said, "Our position on the IPO is when the market is right and the company is ready we'll look at it. Although the IPO market is better than it was a year ago, the company still has a few issues to sort out." The IPO would appear to suggest CVC "will end its involvement in the sport for good, but not so according to Mackenzie." He said, "We'd like to retain a stake in the business. We like being a shareholder, even though we get a bit of grief every so often from people who don't really know what they're talking about in my opinion." PA

04/28/13

Ecclestone and Lattuneddu

F1 CEO Bernie Ecclestone said that "the board of the sport’s parent company Delta Topco has voted to proceed with the Initial Public Offering," according to Christian Sylt of the London Telegraph. Sylt also reported Ecclestone revealed a shake-up of F1’s $698.5M prize fund, "which will see the last-placed team lose the $10M it currently receives every year."

Of the IPO, Ecclestone said, "we have agreed to do it. It will happen this year and it will be up and running. CVC is getting on with it and putting all the bits and pieces together that they have to."

On April 26, CVC formed a Jersey-based company CVC Delta Topco Nominee, "which is understood to be part of a reorganization of the F1 company structure" to prepare for the flotation. F1’s prize fund is split between the top 10 teams. For the past three years any that finish outside this group received $10M each as part of an agreement Ecclestone made with former FIA President Max Mosley, who introduced three new teams in '10.

The payment clause was part of the Concorde Agreement that expired at the end of last year. Ecclestone subsequently signed separate commercial agreements with each team, the exception being the 11th-place team Marussia. Ecclestone: "They don’t have a commercial agreement because they are not in the top 10. We pay the top 10, that’s what we do. For three years we did something different because we had an agreement with Max, but from now on we will pay the top 10 and that is it." London Telegraph