Formula E boss in 600 million euro bid to buy championship

©WRI2

40

Formula E founder and chief executive Alejandro Agag is bidding to buy the all-electric championship from its current shareholders.

A spokesperson for the series confirmed that Agag had written to the chairman of the board of directors this week.

“As an entrepreneur I would like to increase my interest in the business and influence in its future direction," Agag wrote.

"I strongly believe in the future of Formula E and this offer is an expression of that confidence.

"For this reason I would like to make a proposal to buy all the shares in the company at a value of 600 million euros equity value."

Excerpts from his letter were published on motorsport.com, whose parent company acquired a stake in Formula E in 2017. There were no details as to where Agag was planning to find the necessary funding for the takeover.

Other current shareholders include John Malone’s Liberty Global and Discovery Communications. 2016 Formula 1 champion Nico Rosberg has also been announced as one of the other shareholders.

In its most recent financial results, Formula E disclosed it had made a loss of 33.7 million euros to the end of July 2016.

Formula E 'will be the only motorsport' by 2040 - Agag

However, Agag said that the business would have been in profit if not for the decision to invest heavily in promotion and marketing activity.

Costs for staging a Formula E event on street circuits around the world are much less than those for holding a Formula 1 Grand Prix. But the audiences and revenues from each race are also lower.

While companies including Mercedes, BMW, Jaguar and Audi have all moved to Formula E, not everyone is a convert.

Ferrari for one remains unconvinced by Agag's recent claims that Formula E is the future of motorsport.

“With all due respect to Formula E, I think we have a long, long way to go before that becomes a potential substitute for Formula 1,” Ferrari chairman Sergio Marchionne said this week.

"I understand it directionally. I just don’t think we’re there. I think it’s lacking a lot of things," he added. "I don’t think in its present form it is a threat to Formula One."

Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter

Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.