As we reported yesterday Hispania Racing Team has been sold. But in typical F1-style twist not to who we thought. It had been reported by Spanish media that HRT would be sold to a Japanese investment firm. We now know that Spanish investment group, Thesan Capital, had the loot and used it to ink a deal in exchange for a majority shareholding in the team.
Thesan Capital will retain the current directors and team with a view to injecting a strong Spanish influence throughout, which will include new headquarters in Spain.
The full statement from HRT can be read after the break.
Thesan Capital acquire a significant shareholding in Spanish Formula 1 team Hispania Racing
2011-07-04
- The Spanish firm becomes the main shareholder of Grupo Inversor Hispania, current owner of the Formula 1 team.
- The objective of Thesan Capital is, maintaining the current team, to develop its strategy to grow in a market with a lot of potential for the upcoming years.
Thesan Capital has reached an agreement by which it has acquired a majority shareholding in Grupo Inversor Hispania from José Ramón Carabante. Grupo Inversor Hispania is the main shareholder of Hispania Racing, owner of the sole Formula 1 license in Spain, under which Hispania Racing races. Thesan Capital thus becomes the controlling shareholder of the Spanish Formula 1 team.
The Spanish investment group will lead the development of Hispania Racing in the upcoming years, maintaining the current team and directors, which is one of the main assets of the company, and will try to develop and search for opportunities to optimize and improve the performance of the team in the upcoming seasons, alongside progressively making the team more Spanish and definitively settling the team in Spain.
The Thesan Capital team, who consider the acquisition of Hispania Racing as an opportunity to enter a sector with great prospects of growing, will work with the aim of strengthening the strategic management of the group.
About Hispania Racing
Hispania Racing, led until now by José Ramón Carabante, became, after making its debut in Bahrain in March of 2010, the first Spanish team in history to take part in the Formula 1 World Championship. After 19 races, the Spanish team was able to finish the Constructors Championship in eleventh place.
Hispania Racing’s official drivers since the start of the season have been Indian Narain Karthikeyan and Italian Vitantonio Liuzzi. Young driver Daniel Ricciardo has recently joined the team after the collaboration deal signed between Hispania Racing and Red Bull Racing.
About Thesan Capital
Thesan Capital forms in 2008 as a platform to develop investment opportunities such as “Principal Investorâ€, undertaking investments both as single investor and investing alongside its group of co-investors interested in the Iberian market.
Thesan Capital focuses on opportunities in all sectors with a general approach. It does not invest in “start-upsâ€. It carries out control investments, both in companies with a solid base that need a strong strategic reshuffle linked with an operational and/or financial restructure, and in traditional LBO’s (“leveraged buyoutsâ€)with equity tickets worth more than 50 million euros, in public and private debt, through its alliance with Pamplona Capital Management. The firm has ample experience in complex and special situations.