F1 warming up for Singapore IPO

WARM ENOUGH?

Formula One chief Bernie Ecclestone said on Wednesday he had recommended Singapore as the best place to float the motor racing business, seeking to tap Asian enthusiasm for international sporting brands.

Ecclestone, 81, stressed that he made the proposal, but a decision on any flotation was up to CVC Capital Partners, the private equity company that has owned a majority of the business since 2006.

English soccer champions Manchester United also had plans for a US$1 billion (S$1.26 billion) flotation in the southeast Asian city state last year but put them on ice because of market volatility.

A flotation for F1 has long been mooted, but the issue is made more urgent by the expiry this year of a confidential commercial agreement between the rights holding company and the teams whose cars compete in the 20-race series.

The diminutive Ecclestone, a former driver and team boss, has built Formula One (F1) - and with it his estimated US$4.2 billion fortune - from a circuit for motoring enthusiasts into a global enterprise that draws more than half a billion TV viewers for its races.

It is banking on further geographical spread to keep its revenues growing, with a return to the United States later this year for a Grand Prix in Texas, after last year's inaugural race in India, and Russia joins the calendar in 2014. It will also race in Bahrain this year, despite continuing unrest, after last year's contest was shelved following a bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protests.

ORIGINAL SOURCE
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