Chapter 224 Target: F1

Speaking of Bernie Ecclestone, what impressed Barron most deeply in his previous life was the commercial head of F1. Later, when he was nearly 90 years old, he still let the young model Xiaojiao, who is 46 years younger than him, His wife gave birth to a son for him...

That was also his eldest son.

When he was nearly 90 years old and gave birth to his son, the eldest of his three previous daughters was already 65 years old...

In other words, her eldest daughter can have a grandson as old as his son. The age of this eldest son is completely similar to that of his great-grandson.

Tamaran is the second daughter of Bernie Ecclestone. She also has a sister who is 5 years younger than her.

Bernie was born in 1930 and is already 73 years old this year, while Tamaran is just 19 years old, nearly thirty years younger than her half-sister.

Yes, apparently both Tamaran and her sister were born to Bernie's second wife.

Tamaran’s mother Slavica Radic is a supermodel from Yugoslavia. She fell in love with Bernie when she was 24 years old. At that time, the old man was already 51 years old. There was a 27-year age difference between the two...

It is also worth mentioning that Bernie is only 159cm tall, and the height difference between him and his second wife is also a full 23cm...

It seems that the old man is well versed in the art of eugenics and nurturing, and his two subsequent wives are both tall models, which allows the Tamaran sisters to inherit their mother's height.

Barron feels that he and Bernie must have a lot of topics to talk about in this regard. After all, the old man is a ruthless man who can successfully create humans at the age of 90...

However, this time Barron came to attend this F1 promotion reception. Naturally, he did not come specifically to ask the old man for advice, nor was it because of his daughter Tamaran...

"I heard that you are interested in SLEC shares?"

Bernie Ecclestone said to Barron after he had excused Tamaran away.

SLEC, the full name is Slavica Ecclestone Corp. , this company controls the commercial operations of F1.

The company founded by Bernie, who at this time owned only 25% of SLEC through his family company Bambino, with the other 75% owned by Bayerische Bank, JP Morgan Investment Bank and Lehman Brothers In the hands of SPEED Investment Company, a company jointly established by banks.

At the same time, Bernie's commercial operation rights to F1 are also facing challenges, because SPEED, which holds the majority of the shares, is said to be preparing to seize this right from Bernie.

Barron also took advantage of this opportunity and prepared to intervene to see if there was a chance to acquire the company SLEC and control the operations of F1, known as the "third largest sport in the world."

Bernie's relationship with F1 is very complicated, and it starts from earlier...

The F1 event was founded in 1950. It was originally an amateur event without any source of income. The competition conditions were very simple. The track might just be a country road. The team's maintenance station was a temporary board room built on the roadside. The driver had to work part-time as a repairman. As car technicians, many of them still don’t get paid.

Either their family is very rich, or they have to work another job to support their family.

The situation of the team is not much better. The boss has attached all his personal property. For example, Enzo Ferrari decided to produce and sell Ferrari sports cars in order to raise money for the F1 team.

When Bernie bought the Brabham team, F1 had been running for 20 years. Although conditions in all aspects had improved, it was still very confusing in terms of event management and business operations. Whether the team participated and whether the sponsors paid money There are no restrictions, and the game often falls into unpredictable embarrassing situations.

Bernie has a keen insight into the huge business opportunities hidden in F1.

In 1978, after he was elected president of the F1 Manufacturers Association (FOCA), he began to polish this rough jade.

FOCA is an organization established by the F1 teams. Its mission is to coordinate the positions of each team and take joint actions to strive for more benefits.

In order for Bernie to implement his plan, he must first obtain the commercial operation rights of F1 from the International Motor Sports Federation (FISA), the administrator of F1.

Bernie made an important ally, FOCA legal advisor Max Mosley, and the two teamed up to challenge FISA Chairman Ballester, threatening to break away from FISA jurisdiction and form a new event. At that time, the manufacturer team sided with FISA On one side, private teams all support FOCA, and F1 faces a major crisis of division.

Bernie knew the importance of Ferrari in F1. He went to Italy many times to lobby, and finally got the support of Enzo Ferrari. The manufacturer team also turned to FOCA under the leadership of Ferrari. Under pressure, Balest could only F1 commercial management rights are handed over to FOCA.

Bernie took the risk and invested enough upfront capital to ensure that teams that won the F1 race would receive their due bonuses, and at the same time stipulated that any team that wanted to participate in an F1 race must sign a contract with FOCA to participate in all events.

In this way, he can provide sponsors with guaranteed events with participating teams.

Bernie then began to sell television rights - which he foresaw would be the most important source of revenue in an era when live sports were not widely available on television.

He persuaded various TV stations to buy the rights to F1 for the entire season in a package instead of buying it one game at a time.

In this way, the F1 competition not only has a more stable income guarantee, but also greatly increases the exposure rate.

Bernie kept 60% of the income from the TV rights and only distributed 40% to the teams, but no one raised any objection at the time because the small proportion of income was not even 1 penny better than before.

What the team owners didn't expect was that in the next few years, they would become rich with this small proportion, and they became increasingly dissatisfied with the part that Bernie took away - although according to the current agreement, the team's share has increased from the original share. increased from 40% to 63%.

Bernie knows that to firmly control F1 in his own hands, he must not only have money, but also power.

He fully supported Mosley in winning the chairmanships of the three major organizations of the International Motor Sports Federation, the International Automobile Federation and the International Automobile Tourism Association in 1991, 1993 and 1997 respectively, and merged these three organizations into the International Automobile Industry Association. Under the umbrella of the Federation (FIA).

In this way, Mosley has unprecedented power, and Bernie, his biggest supporter, bought the F1 commercial rights from 2000 to 2110, a full 110 years.

Yes, it is SLEC, a company founded by Bernie Ecclestone that won the F1 operating rights for the next 110 years in 2000 for US$360 million...

However, in 2000, Bernie's assets were not as large as later. In order to come up with the US$360 million to purchase the F1 operating rights, he ensured that he would dominate the commercial operations of F1. In 2000, Sold 75% of SLEC shares to the German Kirch Group.

However, the good times did not last long. In 2002, Kirch Group declared bankruptcy, becoming Germany's largest bankruptcy case after World War II.

In this process, 75% of the SLEC shares held by the Kirsch Group were owned by three creditor banks.

The three banks are Germany's Bayerische Bank, Lehman Brothers and JP Morgan Chase.

The three banks hope that Bernie will hand over the F1 operating rights.

At this time, Bernie Ecclestone's greatest source of wealth and power is to control the management rights of F1, so naturally he will not sit still and wait for death.

In the original time and space, he contacted the private equity fund CVC Investment Company, and then through certain means, he secretly took the lead in buying the shares of the German Bavarian Bank, which held the largest share of SLEC - they held 50% of SLEC's shares.

In this way, plus Bernie's own 25% stake, they control up to 75% of SLEC's shares.

In the end, two American banks, Lehman Brothers and JP Morgan Chase, had no choice but to pinch their noses and sell all their shares to CVC Investment Company, thereby withdrawing from the competition for F1 management rights.

Barron, on the other hand, hopes to replace the role of CVC Investment Company and cooperate with Bernie Ecclestone to buy out SLEC's shares.