DECEMBER 6, 2005

JP Morgan sells out

JP Morgan has sold its 14.175% shareholding in the Formula One group to Alpha Prema UK Ltd, the company controlled by CVC Capital Partners. This means that Alpha Prema, which previously owned 71.65% of the shares, now has 86% of the company and 100% of the voting shares.

JP Morgan has sold its 14.175% shareholding in the Formula One group to Alpha Prema UK Ltd, the company controlled by CVC Capital Partners. This means that Alpha Prema, which previously owned 71.65% of the shares, now has 86% of the company and 100% of the voting shares. It means that the only company other than Alpha Prema now involved is the US investment bank Lehman Brothers which has a shareholding of 14.175%. We expect that a deal will soon be struck for those shares as well.

What is not clear is how much was paid for the shares but it was probably rather less than JP Morgan had been hoping, which is probably around $200m.