Sahara India Pariwar acquires 42.5% of Force India

While it is understandable that he was not pleased with Asian Age (whose information turned out to be quite accurate) revealing his secret, it is still surprising that he engaged in such a blatant lie since he stated: « I was shocked to read a press article claiming that I was selling the Force India team. This is completely false and without any foundation. I am very proud to have been able to place an Indian team on the Formula One World Championship grid and have worked very hard to improve the team’s performance. Now that India is finally on the Formula One calendar, my commitment is for Force India to be even stronger. As team principal, I will continue to lead the team and I have no plans to step down. »

However, that is indeed what is happening today as he no longer holds the majority of the team’s capital, which he previously held, dropping from 50% to 42.5% of the capital. The largest reduction in capital is that of the Mol family, who held the other half of the capital and will now only hold 15%. It is worth noting that this Dutch family includes the former director of Spyker, the previous owner of the team, who attempted to purchase the Swedish manufacturer Saab before going bankrupt.

Vijay Mallya will also hand over the reins of the team as, in exchange for his $100 million investment, it is now Subrata Roy who will occupy the position of chairman of the board of the team: « I am delighted to welcome Subrata Roy as chairman of the board of Sahara Force India. It has been a source of pride for me to put India on the F1 map with Force India and to have brought the team to its current level of performance. The Sahara Group has played a very important role in the development of the sport in the country and is an ideal partner to lead Force India to greater success in the Formula One World Championship. » It is therefore difficult to make a more dramatic turnaround than what the businessman has just done. Fortunately for him, the team is not publicly traded: this could have landed him in serious trouble with the market commission…

It is therefore highly likely that this is only the first step in his disengagement from the team since the name is sufficiently generic, making it unnecessary to change the name of the team if Sahara were to continue increasing its stake in the team’s ownership. This will allow the preservation of the valuable television rights linked to the team’s past performances. He will then be able to focus on managing his airline, Kingfisher, which seems to be in financial turmoil. All the resources of his empire are necessary, and F1 no longer appears to be a primary investment for promoting his other brands.

It will be interesting to see what consequences this might have on the choice of drivers for next year, as the team had given itself until December to make its final decision.

With the participation of RacingBusiness.fr