FEBRUARY 10, 2005

A brief aside - who used to own Jordan?

It seems that the mystery over the ownership of Jordan is not a mystery at all as Blackbear Limited, the majority shareholder in Jordan Grand Prix, is not unrelated to Eddie Jordan, even if he had independent legal help in the recent sale of the team to the Midland Group.

It seems that Jordan Grand Prix Holdings Ltd had 2000 shares, 1002 of which were owned by Black Bear Ltd, a company which is registered to an office in the tax haven of St Peter Port in Guernsey. The other 998 shares were owned by a consortium organised by Merrion Capital.

It seems that Eddie Jordan and his wife Marie had a beneficial interest in the shares owned by Black Bear, which means that they have a right to profits made by a company but that the firm - which is usually a trust company of some sort - is run by someone else.