JANUARY 31, 2005

Dubai increases its stake in DaimlerChrysler

The plans for a Team Dubai F1 operation in 2006 have not been talked about for some time but if there is to be such an operation, which was planned to be a McLaren customer team, it will have suffered no damage from the announcement on Sunday that the emirate of Dubai has bought $1bn of DaimlerChrysler stock and is now the company's third biggest shareholder.

The shares now belong to Dubai Holding, a company set up by the Dubai government in October to oversee the Gulf emirate's economic development projects. Dubai now has around two percent of the company's shares. Deutsche Bank owns 10.4% and the government of Kuwait owns 7.2%.