CVC Selling up?

[Trevatanus]

http://www.grandprixtimes.com/news/display/10756
Mr Ecclestone saying that F1 will change hands this year.

[thegreenhell]

Maybe a fizzy drinks company would be interested in buying it?

[FW18]

thegreenhell said:

Maybe a fizzy drinks company would be interested in buying it?

With Mr E at the helm of it again, after devaluing it with some negative press about engine noise and a dominant Mercedes...

[rdjohn]

Only believe it when it happens.

BE is the master of mis-information and hype.

[Eric Mc]

When Bernie makes an announcement, I immediately assume the opposite to what he is saying.

[Composite Guru]

thegreenhell said:

Maybe a fizzy drinks company would be interested in buying it?

Well look how they promote all the other events they run. Would only ever be a good thing for the sport as currently its on its knees.

[Northern Munkee]

Is the story out there because no one is interested in the Russian GP and Bernie wants F1 in the "news"?

[rdjohn]

Maybe one group is sniffing arround and he is trying to up the price. Or no one is interested and he is talking down the price so he can buy-out CVC on the cheap when the end of the year end arrives, without a buyer.

Only the man behind the glasses will know the true answer.

[Derek Smith]

He's been suggesting that CVC is up for sale for years. The problem is that he missed the boat. He should have accepted the offer(s?) on the table before the V6 was mooted. Since then, the market value of the sport appears to have declined. Red Bull's somewhat worrying moans can't have helped. One wonders why they are complaining.

Reports suggest that one thing is true about his statement, CVC 'need' to sell. One might think this is to manage its debts. If the interest rates go up due to pressure from markets, or the fear that F1 might be a risk, I don't know, then that would make it worse for them.

Worrying times.

[Trevatanus]

Derek Smith said:

Red Bull's somewhat worrying moans can't have helped. One wonders why they are complaining.

Maybe all these stories about Dietrich Mateschitz losing interest in F1 is all a smoke screen, so the value will drop and he will buy it?

[rdjohn]

I suppose the lodging of the EU complaint by Force India and Sauber also has ramifications.

[Derek Smith]

rdjohn said:

I suppose the lodging of the EU complaint by Force India and Sauber also has ramifications.

Indeed. I forgot about that. There is no such thing as coincidence.

It is all a bit of a mess, isn't it. All the talk about succession planning, about floating on the stock exchange and moving forward with different partners has come to nowt.

[StevieBee]

IIRC, the CVC deal was set up in such a way that required them to sell a set percentage of their stake within a certain time frame and that the deadline on this is next year.

IMO, from a commercial perspective this makes sense. Whilst F1 is currently very uncomfortable in its own skin, it is going through what I think will ultimately be a positive transition and once the hybrid tech becomes less 'new' then I think we'll see more manufacturer involvement and a reigniting of wider interest. That, though is probably three to fours years down stream so the current investors probably would benefit from cashing out now having made a healthy return.

I stress the phrase 'commercial perspective' - the sporting impact remains of course, debatable.

[thegreenhell]

Trevatanus said:

Derek Smith said:

Red Bull's somewhat worrying moans can't have helped. One wonders why they are complaining.

Maybe all these stories about Dietrich Mateschitz losing interest in F1 is all a smoke screen, so the value will drop and he will buy it?

And at the same time they would need to offload their two teams to enable a takeover of the whole sport without a massive conflict of interests.

Who knows what will happen with RBR, but it sure looks like they're setting themselves up for an exit. STR with a Ferrari engine deal in place could be quite saleable though.