Spyker in talks to sell Formula 1 team

Monday 03 September 2007

Troubled luxury car maker Spyker is in 30-day exclusive talks with Indian industrialist Vijay Mallya who has offered €80m for Spyker’s Formula 1 racing team.

Mallya has formed a 50:50 consortium with Dutch business family Mol. Michiel Mol was Spyker CEO but quit in August.

Spyker paid €77.8m for the British Midland Formula 1 team a year ago. Since then its fortunes have been mixed, with driver troubles and a lack of sponsorship. The team made a first-half loss of €13m, the Volkskrant reports.

The paper says Mallya wants to rename the racing team Team India and put in an Indian driver. He also wants to make sure India stages a Grand Prix within two years.

On Saturday, financial services sector watchdog AFM ordered Spyker to revise its financial report for 2006, saying some of the figures had been 'polished'.

The Volkskrant says the real figures show that Spyker made a loss of €10m in 2006 rather than net profit of €800,000.

© DutchNews.nl

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