Williams grew revenue and profits in 2017, but all eyes are on Liberty

Williams Grand Prix Holdings PLC has just announced the Group’s financial results for the year ended 31 December 2017.

WGPH is the holding company of the Williams group of companies, which includes Williams Grand Prix Engineering Limited and Williams Advanced Engineering Limited.

Group revenue remained broadly unchanged in 2017 at £166.2m, compared to £167.4m in 2016. EBITDA for 2017 was £10.8m, compared to £15.5m in 2016.

Williams' Formula 1 business generated £125.6m in revenue in 2017 (2016: £116.7m) with an EBITDA of £16.0m (2016: £12.4m). Williams Advanced Engineering recorded revenue of £39.5m in 2017 (2016: £36.9m) with an EBITDA of £5.0m (2016: £4.2m).

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"The team at Williams delivered solid results last year and our 2017 financial performance reflects that continued progress," said Mike O’Driscoll, Group Chief Executive Officer.

"Revenue was up at both the Formula One operation and Williams Advanced Engineering in 2017, following on from a strong performance in 2016. Our results gave us confidence to continue investing in our facility and technical capabilities.

"Although there are many challenges on the horizon, we are well placed to succeed, with a strong and talented organization, and world class facilities," added O'Driscoll.

"These results once again demonstrate the capabilities of the Williams team to continue to grow the business in a tough and unrelenting environment"

Speaking of "challenges on the horizon", Williams Racing's deputy team principal Claire Williams delivered a dire warning last week, revealing that if Liberty Media's initiatives to impose a budget cap in F1 were not successful, the failure would likely spell the end of the Grove-based outfit.

"If I look at it from my perspective, if we don’t do this, then Williams will close, the whole of the company," was Williams alarming take on the budget cap matter when speaking to Racefans.net.

"I was very positive about it [the cost cap], but then there are some of the people that are very negative about it.

"We are lucky that this works for us, but it think it probably demonstrates the fact that our team, track performance aside, is a good model of how a Formula 1 team should be operating in our sport."

Williams is currently the only publicly quoted Formula 1 team, with the exception of Ferrari.

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