Mr Ecclestone has admitted paying the money but denies it was a bribe. He says
that Mr Gribkowsky threatened to tip off HM Revenue Customs with false
details about his tax affairs if the money was not paid.
Mr Ecclestone has not been charged with any wrongdoing in Germany but
Constantin Medien has filed a civil suit against him in the UK.
It claims it lost out because BayernLB’s stake alone was worth $2.8bn but Mr
Gribkowsky did not investigate other bidders since he had received a bribe
to sell to CVC.
Constantin owned a 16.7pc stake in F1 which had a balance sheet value of
€204m. However, this was sold to BayernLB in 2003 for just €8.5m.
In return for Constantin agreeing to sell its stake for a low valuation, the
bank committed to a profit share agreement. If BayernLB had sold its F1
stake for more than $1bn then Constantin was due to get around 10pc of the
amount above that threshold.
CVC only paid $839m for the stake and Constantin claims that it lost $171m
because it was undervalued.
Mr Ecclestone denies that F1 was undervalued and claims that the lawsuit is
being driven by Constantin shareholder and board member Dieter Hahn.
“This is a case where he is saying because of the actions that allegedly
took place he lost money. Because the shares were sold cheap. His problem is
people from the bank said the shares weren’t sold cheap…In the end CVC
gave a very good price for the shares.”
During Gribkowsky’s trial Kurt Faltlhauser, who headed BayernLB’s
administrative board from July 2002 until July 2005, said “the price we
were offered by CVC was surprisingly high and it came as a great relief.”
Former BayernLB management board member Dieter Burgmer added that “BayernLB’s
management board regarded the net proceeds from the sale of the Formula One
stake to CVC as very attractive.”
Reflecting this, BayernLB announced a valuation yield of €328m in its 2006
results and stated that the sale of the F1 shares “decisively
contributed to the positive result.”
Mr Ecclestone says that he has been approached with an offer to settle the
case but it has been rebuffed.
“All this is about finding a way to get money. It is as simple as
that…Dieter Hahn had some intermediary, who is a friend of ours, to talk
to me about ‘you know you should settle, you don’t want to go to court’. I’m
not settling. The judge will settle the case.”
The trial is expected to take up to five weeks to be heard. Constantin’s
representative, Keith Oliver of Peters Peters, declined to comment.