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Melbourne: Bernie Ecclestone is preparing a $10 billion flotation of Formula One, with Ferrari to be offered a special shareholding in a new Concorde Agreement, which would run from 2013-2020, it was claimed on Saturday.
Sky News, which broke the story about News Corp’s interest in the sport last year, says the public offering will be for part of current owners CVC Capital Partners’ stake and values the sport at “well over $10 billion”. Ferrari will have a special position as the oldest team in the sport, and there’s extra cash for Red Bull.
A special deal for Ferrari and Red Bull makes sense given their decision to quit the Formula One Teams Association (Fota) in December, ostensibly over a disagreement over cost-cutting. The Sky story claims Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo and Red Bull owner Dietrich Mateschitz would be made directors.
It would also tally with what Ecclestone, the chief executive of F1 Management, has been saying recently regarding his preference for floating the sport in Singapore or Hong Kong.
This week Ecclestone said this, rather than a private sale, was the most likely option and that he wanted to “try to do something before the season starts”. “Ferrari would never go do a deal with those clowns,” he added, referring to Fota.
Intriguingly, the story was removed from the Sky News website after a few hours on Saturday.
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