US media tycoon John Malone leads race to buy F1

A media company controlled by American tycoon John Malone is leading the battle to buy Formula One with the broadcaster Sky also in the hunt.

Malone’s Liberty Media, which owns a collection of media, telecoms and entertainment assets, is in talks with the private equity group CVC about a deal for the Formula One parent company, Delta Topco.

Other companies who have looked at a deal to buy the motorsport include the Qatari owners of football club Paris Saint-Germain. Liberty Media’s sister company Liberty Global, which owns telecom groups around the world, including Virgin Media, and is working on a deal with Discovery Communications, another Malone company, has also taken a look at Formula One. Apple has also been linked.

It will cost around $8.5bn (£6.4bn) to take control of Formula One. Liberty Media could initially buy a minority stake, which would not require regulatory approval, before acquiring a majority stake, according to Sky News, which first reported the story.

Chase Carey, a key lieutenant of Rupert Murdoch at News Corporation and also a non-executive director of Sky, is also being lined up as chairman.

CVC has made billions from Formula One through dividends and selling down its stake. The private equity fund bought a majority stake in Formula One in 2006 for around $1.7bn but has since reduced that to 35.5% by selling minority stakes to investors such as BlackRock and the Norwegian sovereign fund.

The ownership structure of Delta Topco is complex. While CVC holds 35% of the shares, it controls the sport because its shares have special voting rights. Waddell & Reed, an American fund manager, has a stake of just under 20% while Bernie Ecclestone, who is the chief executive of Formula One Group, also has a stake.

Formula One Group holds the commercial rights to the sport, making its money from sponsorship deals, television rights, and charging fees to the venues that host the races.

Despite CVC making billions from Formula One, the sport is under pressure to become more entertaining due to the dominance of Mercedes, whose drivers are Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.

The motor-racing tracks in Europe, including Silverstone in the UK, are struggling to make a profit from hosting grand prix events once the fee to Formula One Group is taken into account. The sport has also been criticised for turning its back on its traditional heartlands in Europe by staging races in places such as Azerbaijan and Bahrain rather than France.

Liberty Media also owns stakes in Live Nation Entertainment, the concert promoter, and the Atlanta Braves baseball team. It is listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange in New York, meaning Formula One would become a listed company as part of the deal.