The funds’ shares, which do not carry voting rights, were sold by private
equity firm CVC Capital Partners, reducing its stake to 42.5pc. Through the
$1.6bn sale to the new investors, CVC will have recouped much of the $1.7bn
it spent buying F1 in 2006. CVC will sell a further 11pc in the IPO.
“I look at the float as a change of shareholders,” said Mr
Ecclestone, adding: “We’ve got some shareholders at the moment, so now
they are going to sell some of their shares and we are going to have some
other shareholders. I don’t imagine the shareholders will be running the
company so there’s no real change. It’s not going to bring any investment to
the company as it doesn’t need it.”
Around 30pc of F1 will be listed with the bulk of the equity coming from the
estate of bankrupt bank Lehman Brothers, which is F1’s second-biggest
shareholder with 15.3pc of the business.
Mr Ecclestone will not reduce his 5.3pc stake in the IPO. The 81 year-old will
remain F1’s chief executive and he says that no successor is being groomed.
“I wouldn’t appoint somebody to do my job because nobody would run the
business the way I do. You might as well have asked Frank Sinatra who he
would appoint to replace him. Somebody can sing but can they sing like
Sinatra? No. Will somebody run the business the way I run it? No. They might
run it better but they wouldn’t run it the same.”