Williams team misses its stock market debut

The Williams team ultimately failed to place all of the 2.7 million shares on sale, which reduces the gains made by Frank Williams and his associates by that amount.

This particularly affects Patrick Head, who is the one who put the most shares on the market since the co-founder of the team was supposed to decrease his stake from 27% to just over 5%. He was therefore expected to receive nearly 80% of the 80 million euros the IPO was supposed to raise for the various shareholders. The team is currently valued at only 250 million euros instead of the 265 million euros anticipated during the initial declarations of intent.

However, Williams aimed for the lower end of its initial range (24 to 29 euros) by setting a price at 25€, which lowered its expectations for a higher valuation. Nonetheless, this does not call into question the team’s financing since this IPO was not a capital raise for the team but rather a capital exit by the main shareholders, led by Patrick Head.

The team therefore believed that the resources provided by PDVSA through Pastor Maldonado were sufficient to offset the departures of RBS or AirAsia. Furthermore, the team’s argument that it was now equipped with a more stable shareholder base is not well understood, as 27.39% of the capital was placed in free float compared to a structure with only three shareholders before the operation.

If the team believes it has significant sources of growth for the future to satisfy its shareholders, it doesn’t abandon its ambition to reach the top of the hierarchy once again. However, this could have a considerable cost, which may be incompatible with investor expectations…

It remains to be seen how the stock of the first Formula 1 team listed on the financial markets will perform.

With the participation of RacingBusiness.fr