AUGUST 28, 2006

Further information about Spyker

Further information is emerging about Spyker which helps to explain the interest in Formula 1. Spyker is a very small car company but it is growing fast. In 2005 it made a total of just 48 cars. That was three times the figure of 2004 and it is expected that the firm will make more than 100 this year. The company had sales of $6.8m in 2005, up from $5m in 2004. The company made a loss of $6.6m in 2004 but thar was reduced to just $3.7m last year. New money arrived from investors which enabled the development of new models and an increase in staff from 60 people in 2004 to 91 in 2005 and by the end of last year the firm had 27 dealers around the world. The company sells 40% of the cars in America, 27% in Europe but only 14% in both the Middle East and in China. Thus promoting sales in these regions (the classic F1 new markets) is a key goal for the company.

Money has been pouring into Spyker from the Middle East with venture capital company MerchantBridge buying 15% of the shares in September 2005 and Mubadala Investments buying 17% later that year. MerchantBridge is interesting because one of its shareholders is Sheikh Mohamed bin Abdallah Al-Khalifa, a major player in the Bahrain royal family. Mubadala is owned by the Abu Dhabi government and also owns a five percent share of Ferrari.

According to our sources in Holland, the plan now is for Spyker to issue more shares to fund the purchase of the Midland F1 team, with Michiel Mol's consortium M Management buying a percentage of these.

Spyker chairman Victor Muller says that F1 is now a much more interesting business because of the recent financial settlements and the new rules in 2008 as there will be more money available to the teams from TV rights and the teams will be able to buy cars and engines.