Kirch Bankers Set to Sell F1 Stake to Carmakers
Lenders to the bankrupt Kirch media group are to make a dramatic bid for the company's controlling interest in Formula One, according to the Independent on Sunday newspaper.
Lenders to the bankrupt Kirch media group are to make a dramatic bid for the company's controlling interest in Formula One, according to the Independent on Sunday newspaper.
And sensationally the move could result in the Grand Prix circus taken from Bernie Ecclestone and handed to a consortium of carmakers.
Bayrische Landebank, JP Morgan Chase and Lehman Brothers are believed to be keen to purchase Kirch's 58 per cent stake in SLEC - Ecclestone's trust which owns the commercial rights to Formula One - in exchange for a £970 million loan.
The carmakers (Fiat, BMW, Ford, DaimlerChrysler and Renault) were offered a 30 per cent stake in SLEC last week by bankers but rejected the offer because they want a controlling share.
According to sources, the trio of bankers are to sell the 58 per cent share to the carmakers, who have threatened to set up a rival series in 2008.
"A deal will take place (between the banks and the car manufacturers)," a source close to the bankers is quoted as saying in the broadsheet. "It will just be a matter of the price."
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