Ecclestone Loses U.K. High Court Case Over F-1 Control to Banks

[Dixie Flatline]

Originally Posted by jasonhill9884

The commercial management meaning:

How much money the teams get
Where the races are held

etc..

Which is my point, because we're still not sure as to whether Silverstone will be included in the calendar next year - and is this something that is affected by his Lordship's ruling against Bambino Holdings and in particular ruling that the appointment of the directors is invalid?

[Jordi]

I can only wait for the day all this bull**** ends and we get on with racing, really. As Gilles said "if the money in F1 disappeared overnight, I would still be in F1 because I love racing. The enterpreneurs would be gone".

[kdr]

funny that the very people BE enticed to F1, the manufacturers and the banks, are the ones after him now. play with fire and you can get burnt.

[Kicking-back]

The banks will probably endorse Bernie's offer of better terms to the teams.

If GPWC comes in, then the banks stake in Formula One will be worth nothing as it will be dead.

Bernie still has a major role to play, for that very reason.

[Super Tourer]

http://www.grandprix.com/ns/ns13958.html

The judge outlines his view on the case.

Mr Justice Park dismissed the arguments of Formula One Holdings in its case against Speed Investments and he did so in a fashion that sent a clear message that the defendants did not have a case at all.

He dismissed the claim from the Bambino Trust (which owns 25% of the shares in SLEC, FOH's holding company) that the shareholder agreement appointed certain "A" directors but not certain "B" directors, calling it "an unmaintainable position"

The judge went on to say that Speed Investments has control and that it is therefore open to the company to begin further proceedings to unravel the control that Bambino exercises over the two operating companies: Formula One Administration and Formula One Management. The Judge refused to grant permission to appeal his decision and if Bambino wishes to appeal it will have to seek permission from the Court of Appeal. This must be done within 14 days of the defendant receiving a transcript of the judgement.

Apparently undaunted by this, it looks like BE will approach the issue from another direction, by opening his wallet to the teams in an attempt to win them over and remain under his 'umbrella' rather than defect to the GPWC.

There will undoubtedly be more legal argument in this case, however from the banks viewpoint, the longer it drags on the nearer the end of the concorde agreement gets.

[Teretonga]

While Bernie has lost round one of the slug fest to the banks he is still in control of F1.
And that is what all this is about. Control
The banks are not interested in running F1, they just want to see some return on the money they outlaid to the companies that held the rights before those companies went bust.
If they think they can get a better return from manipulating Bernie into handing over control than allowing him to buy them out they are mistaken.
They nothing about F1 and will make a bigger cock-up of it than Bernie and Max have.

[Dixie Flatline]

Interesting bit of news to emerge from the shadows is that both Williams (to be pedantic, Williams Grand Prix Engineering) and McLaren (McLaren Racing) are suing their former lawyers over their advice in relation to the renewal of the Concorde Agreement back in 1997.

"In 1997 Williams and McLaren retained Linklaters and B&M [Baker & McKenzie] respectively to advise on an agreement with [Bernie] Ecclestone, which the motor racing teams claim was intended to give them an interest in the sale of F1's commercial and media rights.

This disposal is understood to relate to the sale by Ecclestone of a 75 per cent stake in SLEC HOlding, the parent company of Formula One Holdings, the company which governs the sport."

In essence, Williams and McLaren are claiming that their former lawyers acted negligently and in breach of their contractual duties so that when the commercial rights were disposed of in 1999-2001, the teams were not entitled to and/or did not receive any share in the relevant proceeds.

The full article can be found here.

[mark_l]

Bernie might liquidate the holding company that the 3 banks have shares in. As the banks at the moment have no vote on this, they will be left with 75% of nothing.

Bernie buys back control of F1 and so we carry on as before.

This is what BAT and Honda are doing at BAR to get rid of the minority shareholders (pollock, gorne, reynard) and gain total control of BAR.

[1200Datto27]

I thought that it was just Pollock that was holding back, and the others where happy to sell?