Liberty Media to refinance F1’s $3 billion debt

If the first realization of Liberty Media taking power in the capital of F1 was the appointment of a new organizational chart, the American group has decided to tackle another less visible but no less important project.

Thus, he announced that he would proceed with a refinancing of the sports debt, which was largely increased by the previous shareholders, led by CVC Capital. Indeed, in these times of very low interest rates, debt allows for reducing profits and thus taxes while facilitating the payment of dividends to shareholders.

We can recall that in 2012, CVC Capital had chosen to also pursue a refinancing of its loans amounting to one billion dollars, which had been allocated to dividend payments. The new maturity of this loan was then set to 2017. The new shareholders have therefore decided to renew this operation, even though the amount and maturity have not been made public.

In parallel with this operation, Liberty Media decided to repay $300 million of this loan in advance because Delta Topco, the company holding the commercial rights to F1, has a surplus of cash on its balance sheet.

With the participation of www.racingbusiness.fr