Formula One Group

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The Formula One Group is a group of companies that is responsible for the advertising and commercial exploitation of the Formula 1 World Championship . The rights to the Formula 1 World Championship are owned by the organizer, the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA).

The Formula One Group goes back to the Concorde Agreement . In addition to Formula One Administration Ltd. (FOA) are Formula One Management Ltd. (FOM) and Formula One Licensing BV (FOL) are operating companies of the Formula One Group, which has around 200 employees and had a turnover of 1.1 billion euros in 2009.

In January 2017 the company was taken over by Liberty Media , until then the family of Bernie Ecclestone as well as different media groups , banks and investment companies were the owners.

history

Concorde Agreement

The Concorde Agreement of 1981 recognized the FIA ​​(or FISA ), both as the supreme regulatory body and the owner of the commercial rights of the Formula 1 World Championship, with the commercial rights being granted to the FOCA . Thus FISA had full control over the technical regulations. The television broadcasting rights were administered by FOCA and the income from it was distributed. The races became uniform events and the sport became more professional. From 1982 the FOCA rented the broadcasting rights to the European Broadcasting Union and made them broadcast not just individual races, but in future all races. The interest in the sport increased strongly, sponsors were drawn ashore and brought a lot of money into the coffers of the teams.

Ecclestone founded the company Formula One Promotions and Administration (FOPA) in 1987 , which was awarded the commercial rights by FOCA as part of the second Concorde Agreement. Of the television money, 47 percent went to the teams and 30 percent to a company called Allsopp, Parker & Marsh , which in turn gave part of it to the FIA. FOPA kept the remaining 23% to itself. In addition, all of the money from the Grand Prix fees flowed into FOPA, for which it took over the financial security and the prize money.

First sale of shares

In 1996 Ecclestone founded SLEC Holdings , based in Jersey, as a holding company for Formula 1 companies. This company was named after Slavica Ecclestone, Ecclestone's wife at the time, and initially belonged entirely to Bambino Holdings ( Italian child ), which was also founded by Ecclestone . Ecclestone transferred all of his shares in the Formula 1 companies to his wife Slavica in preparation for an IPO planned for 1997 .

In October 1999, Morgan Grenfell Private Equity (MGPE) acquired 12.5% ​​of SLEC for £ 234 million . In February 2000 Hellman & Friedman acquired a further 37.5% stake in SLEC for 625 million pounds, together with the shares of MGPE from this became the holding Speed ​​Investments , which held 50% of the shares in SLEC and was also based in Jersey . The share in SLEC was later increased to 75 percent. In March 2000, EM.TV acquired Speed ​​Investments for around 1.1 billion pounds sterling (equivalent to 3.3 billion DM ).

In 2001, the Kirch Group took over the shares in EM.TV , which, according to financial experts, had taken over heavily with the purchase of the shares. Due to the insolvency of the Kirch Group, Speed ​​Investments fell to Bayerische Landesbank , JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Lehman Brothers .

At the turn of the year 2005/2006, SLEC Holdings Ltd. owned by Bambino Holding and Speed ​​Investments , which were 62.2% owned by Bayerische Landesbank and 18.9% each by JPMorgan and Lehman Brothers.

Sale to CVC Capital Partners

At the beginning of 2006, CVC Capital Partners successfully applied to buy Speed ​​and SLEC. The start-ups Alpha Topco Ltd. and Alpha Prema UK Ltd. should take their place. Bambino and the management of the Formula One Group became or rather remained co-owners. The companies with Alpha in their name were followed by a chain of start- ups .

At the turn of the year 2010/2011, Delta Topco Ltd. on Jersey via Delta 2 (Lux) Sarl in Luxembourg Delta 3 UK Ltd., which is operated via Alpha D2 Ltd. Alpha Prema UK Ltd. belonged to which SLEC Holdings Ltd. in Jersey, which owned Formula One Administration Ltd. belonged to. CVC Capital Partners was ultimately unable to take over the shares in JPMorgan and Lehman Brothers and in 2011 sold several shares in three other investment companies. 35.1% of the shares remained in the hands of CVC Capital Partners. In addition, Bernie Ecclestone and Bambino Holding, the US state of Texas (via teacher pension scheme funds), the FIA ​​and several individuals also owned smaller shares in Delta Topco Ltd.

Sold to Liberty Media

After Liberty Media initially acquired 18.7 percent of the shares in CVC Capital Partners for 1.1 billion US dollars in September 2016, the complete takeover took place in January 2017 for a purchase price of 4.4 billion US dollars. In addition, Liberty Media assumed existing liabilities in the amount of 4.1 billion US dollars.

In the course of the takeover, Bernie Ecclestone was replaced as managing director of the company by Chase Carey as CEO .

Head of the Formula One Group

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Case No COMP / M.4066 - CVC / SLEC. (PDF; 268 KB) (No longer available online.) European Commission , March 20, 2006, archived from the original on October 30, 2008 ; Retrieved on July 1, 2012 (English): "The Formula One Group is responsible for the promotion of the FIA ​​Formula One World Championship and for the exploitation of the commercial rights related to the Championship." Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and still Not checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / ec.europa.eu
  2. ↑ 2012 Formula One Sporting Regulations. (PDF; 273 KB) Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, March 9, 2012, accessed on July 1, 2012 : “The FIA ​​will organize the FIA ​​Formula One World Championship (the Championship) which is the property of the FIA ​​... "
  3. ↑ a b Stephan Heublein: The F-1 Empire. Die Zeit , January 13, 2011, accessed on July 1, 2012 .
  4. ^ Giles Richards: Bernie Ecclestone's 40-year reign as F1 chief reaches end of road after takeover. The Guardian , January 23, 2017, accessed January 24, 2017 .
  5. ↑ Mattijs Diepraam: Poachers turned gamekeepers: how the FOCA wurde the new FIA. November 21, 2007, accessed January 24, 2017 .
  6. ^ Grand prix, grand prizes. The Economist , July 13, 2000, accessed January 24, 2017 .
  7. ↑ a b Kirch takes over the helm. Der Spiegel , October 8, 2001, accessed July 1, 2012 .
  8. ↑ Leo Kirch puts pressure on BayernLB. Süddeutsche Zeitung , January 29, 2011, accessed on July 1, 2012 .
  9. ↑ TEXT-S & P rates UK Formula One (Alpha Topco Ltd.) 'B +'. Reuters , May 8, 2012, accessed July 1, 2012 .
  10. ↑ Waddell & Reed increases stake in Formula One in $ 500 million deal. The Daily Telegraph , June 16, 2012, accessed July 1, 2012 .
  11. ↑ a b Christian Nimmervoll: Eight billion dollar deal confirmed: Liberty buys Formula 1. Motorsport-Total.com, September 8, 2016, accessed on January 24, 2017 .

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