Liberty Media sells F1 shares for $400 million
In order to repay part of its debt, Liberty Media has decided to sell $400 million worth of F1 shares. The other shareholders have also decided to sell part of their capital.
If Liberty Media has become the reference shareholder of F1, the group remains listed on the New York Stock Exchange, which allows for an easier transfer of held shares.
Thus, the American group announced that it would sell $400 million worth of F1 shares. It will not be alone in this transaction, as it will be accompanied by another sale of $775 million in shares from the sport’s other shareholders.
Liberty Media has decided to proceed with this sale in order to repay part of the debt. This seems to be a priority since acquiring the discipline last September. Three months ago, Liberty Media announced its intention to refinance its debt, which amounts to three billion dollars. At that time, an initial partial repayment of 300 million dollars had already been made. In total, nearly 700 million dollars will have been repaid in just three months, even though Liberty Media has not yet started receiving dividends from its investment.
The other shareholders, led by CVC Capital, have indicated that they intend to simply reap the benefits of this sale, which mathematically leads to a dilution of their stake in the capital. According to Joe Saward’s information, the investment fund would thus decrease from 14.4% to only 8%. Similarly, the share directly held by Bernie Ecclestone would now be less than 1%. In total, the minority shareholders would retain only 22% of the capital.
With the participation of www.racingbusiness.fr
