Force India to become Sahara Force India after buy-in

2011 F1 season

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Sahara Force India logo

The Force India team will be renamed Sahara Force India Formula One following a buy-in from the Sahara Group.

Mallya will remain as team principal of the Silverstone-based outfit.

He has sold a 42.5% stake in his team to Subrata Roy’s Sahara Group. Mallya’s United Breweries Group retains 42.5%, with a further 15% held by Michiel Mol.

Force India said the deal will bring around $100m (63.38m) of investment into the team.

Mallya said: “I am delighted to welcome Saharasri Subrata Roy Sahara as Chairman of Sahara Force India.

“It has indeed been a matter of pride for me to put India on the F1 map with Force India and raise the performance of the team to its current levels. The Sahara Group has played a very important role in the development of sport in the country and is an ideal partner to take the Force India F1 Team to greater success in the Formula 1 world championship.”

Subrata Roy said: “The advent of India in this exciting sport has remained a matter of pride for all our countrymen. I feel doubly proud that Sahara is the co-owner of India’s only F1 team and I am sure that through the Sahara Force India F1 Team, we will together bring pride and laurels to our beloved nation.”

Last week he strongly denied rumours the team was up for sale, saying: “As team principal, I will continue to run the team and I have no plans whatsoever to exit.”

The Sahara Group’s businesses include includes television channels, real estate companies, film distribution, tourism services and a cricket team.

Mallya took over the former Spyker team at the end of 2007, re-branding it Force India. The team rose to seventh in the constructors’ championship last year and currently hold sixth place.

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Image © Force India F1 Team

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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120 comments on “Force India to become Sahara Force India after buy-in”

  1. *insert Camel reference here*

    1. haha and I’m sure Mallya’s drink brand would completely soak the Sahara.

      Also the logo is rubbish for these reasons:

      1) Sahara is in different font and looks out of place

      2) The little Indian flag (right), along with the Sahara text, are just after thoughts

      3)The circular element (which now has people around its edge) looks rubbish with the exception of the people section

      1. Sure the logo is quite pants, but I’d like to think they would rebrand/develop it for next season.

        Just as long as they don’t use the company who did the London 2012 Olympic logo!

      2. The little Indian flag along with the Sahara text and circular element with people around its edge is a part of Sahara India’s company logo.

  2. It would be interesting to see how this buy out will impact their drivers for 2012. As per reports sahara is interested in seeing an indian driver in team where as mallya steadfastly gone for better drivers rather than nationality. With both mallya & sahara with equal shares, probably one driver with mallya preference & one with sahara preference? Things doesn’t look good for Nico Hulkenburg…

    1. Well mallaya bought f1 team for the love of motorsport and tried very hard to bring F1 race to India, while Subroto sahara never shown any known interest in f1.Since Mallaya going through a turbulent times,Sahara just jumped into the bandwagon and it just a opportunist move from a screwed businessman.All Sahara want is publicity and a Indian driver in the car no matter how crap he is, it would really be sad to see if narain get a drive and guy of nico hulk calibre watching from the side lines…

      1. All Sahara want is publicity and a Indian driver in the car no matter how crap he is

        Get your facts right… Sahara never mentioned that he wanted an Indian driver

  3. That is probably one of the worst logos of any professional company I’ve ever seen.

    1. Have to agree, look like someone’s put it together in paint at the last minute!

    2. Even ReallyRubbishRacing don’t have a ReallyRubbishLogo :)

      http://www.reallyrubbishracing.co.uk/index.php?title=Main_Page

      1. Maybe the top blokes did that one, or left it to their secratary to put it together. I bet both you (@pjtierney) or @ajokay or possibly even a non desinger with a bit of feel for estetics could easily make up something a lot better!

      2. With “that one” meaning the Desert Force India (another US operation?) one, not the RRR logo!

      3. @PJTierney oh you are too kind! Although I’m agreed with both you and @BasCB and Tyson, the logo is an afterthought and they’ve clearly just smudged both existing logos together. Indeed we could do a better job, although the name Sahara doesn’t exactly conjour up much inspiration, does it?

        1. Guys, “Sahara” in Hindi means “support” .. It’s not just the name of a desert!

          1. In some language, maybe Arab or some other one spoken in the North Africa, Sahara actually means desert. So it’s the Desert desert :p

    3. probably cause sahara insisted they wanted the team name to include sahara and do it right now and they just got both the logos together and pasted one below the other. :P

    4. That was actually my first thought! Way too messy!

    5. It is pretty dire.

  4. It all seems very rushed. The mock logo uses the 2008 Force India logo as a base, which was before they were forced to change the ‘I’ to an ‘i’ to avoid confusion between the FI logo and F1.

    1. @ed24f1 Well spotted! That’s very interesting…

    2. @ed24f1 looking at Sahara’s logo, it’s clear the proportions have been distorted here. The combination of part of the Sahara logo on part of Force India’s logo makes it hard to appreciate. It could have turned out much better.
      This, for example, which is the same logo, just done with some logic. It took me five minutes to do it, and I guess Sahara Group knew it before us and had all the time to develop a proper logo.

      1. @fixy that one already looks better proportioned. But the real problems are the use of completely different fonts, and to make matters worse the Force india is in italics and the SAHARA in straight.
        It makes the indian flag stripes go the other way from the F, making it look bad even in your version.

        I think they should put SAHARA in Italics as well, so the Flag at the end of it can stay/merge with that F wich is the most recognizable part of the FI logo.
        The changed detail of the Chakra is the only thing thats fine with the design, but even here it being black/coloured makes it far more prominent, especially in combination with the lettering changed to gray.

        1. I admit I myself don’t like my version. It was just to show how to properly paste a logo on another ;)
          Like you said @bascb, the logo will need deeper revisions to look proper, the two fonts should be the same or at least have the same formatting. Also, I thought that, as on the right of the Sahara logo there are two stripes making the Indian flag, that the Sahara text could be overlapped in some way with the F, but I couldn’t figure out a way to do so in those 5 minutes.
          It looks strange to have an Indian-coloured F and an “extension” of it on the opposite side of the logo.
          The logo they showed is just two completely different logos merged. They need to be changed.

          1. @fixy maybe if the Indian Flag at the end of SAHARA would look more like the tip of that FI flag it would already make it more harmonious.

            Or doing what you say, put the SAHARA in the flag so the tip of the flag becomes those two stripes.

          2. @bascb the problem with what I said is that the logo would be enormous against the F, and reducing it would also make the Indian flag on the Sahara logo too small. I couldn’t try it because I can’t find a hi-res picture of FI’s logo, and your idea is good but I would personally take it away completely as it’s very small and the flag already exists in the F.
            There is certainly a lot of work to do and a wide margin of improvent for the designers, I hope they change it!

          3. I agree, your version seems better balanced, but the mix of fonts in that logo just hurts my eyeballs!

          4. @fixy yes, it really needs a bit of work to get things right, but there is so much they can do to improve it I can only hope they do so soon.
            At least before plastering this all over the team kit!

        2. why should the font be the same? many logos use different fonts (like Red Bull racing for example) Maybe it is supposed to distinguish Sahara as a separate company joining the team. The logo looks terrible but its not because they are using different fonts. There are plenty of good logos with different fonts.

      2. Force India’s logo itself isn’t very good, before Sahara gets involved. I mean the red doesn’t need to be there, and they could really simplify the symbol on the Indian flag a lot more.

        I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt however and hope the 2 of them figure out something decent between them.

    3. they shouldnt mass them together whatsoever. They should redo a logo from scratch using both names as the base instead of jamming one into the other.

  5. That’s how to report, unlike a certain Mr. Saward.. Thank you Keith.
    Good news for the team though, a lot more money and more development.

    1. Joe had good reasons to be annoyed. Some of us don’t enjoy dealing with liars.

      1. And we’re still talking about F1 business, right? And he didn’t really lie. It was a partnership deal and Mallya did not sell the team. Most of came from the Mol side. He still own a controlling stake and still is the MD.

        So, I don’t know how exactly he lied about not selling the team?

        1. Well, typing fail ^^

          **Most of *it came from the Mol side.
          **He still *owns ..

        2. Look, having done business in India, I know that the Indian definition of lying is different from the Western definition. Fuzzy logic makes it easy to “lie” or at least be absurdly less than honest.

          All Mallya had to say was “no comment” and it would be fine. Instead, he decided to rant about how the reports were ridiculous and that he had no intention of selling the team. That is lying.

          1. Appreciated! But do we understand “no comment”?
            And how exactly he lied? He sold just 8% from previous value, its Mol family who have actually nearly exited

          2. Even if Mallya never wanted to sell his stake in the team, he was persuaded to change his mind in this case… this group can buy whatever they like. This group has the blessing of people who matter to do whatever it likes… so i’m not surprised by this flip.

            besides the reports which Mallya denied was about him selling all his stake to Sahara to fund his business… which were very ridiculous… the local news reports about him shutting his airline company were also ridiculous… the local news here is horrible their version of news is far from what the actual facts. i’m sure Mallya was talking about local news reports when he said those things.

          3. Look, having done business in India, I know that the Indian definition of lying is different from the Western definition. Fuzzy logic makes it easy to “lie” or at least be absurdly less than honest.

            By that logic entire F1 operation seems to have originated in India.

            All that we ever hear from drivers, team owners, CVC/Bernie/FOM, FOTA and FIA
            is fuzzy logic.
            Never the Yes/No/ No comment :)

            Every news in F1 starts as a rumor, brews with series of vehement denials from associated parties, and next thing you know the rumor becomes truth.

          4. I can tell you that nothing is sold until the cheque has cleared. And you certainly don’t want to potentially kill a deal with a premature announcement. Lie, not lie, doesn’t matter, the team lives and that’s a good thing.

        3. @rits I fully understand that Mallya might have been in trouble for the news getting out before it was a finished deal.
          But he could easily have just not commented, or worded his reaction differently to be less of an affront to the reality now coming out.

          He could have just said he heard rumours about him getting out, saying he was not doing that. Indeed he could have talked about the team becoming even more Indian with getting more partners to the team in the future to help build on what they have already achieved!
          Instead of slacking off the news in denial, it might have gotten a positive spin.

          1. @BasCB What you said is exactly what I mean. We don’t know what situation he was in when he had to make that comment. And I still maintain my stand – he did not lie in my opinion.

            The rumours were making it sound like he’s selling off the team and bailing out, which wasn’t true.
            He said that it was baseless and that he had no plans of selling off or leaving. And this deal is a partnership which came about from the Mol family giving up most of their share. Mallya just let off 7.5% of his share and is still at the helm of the team. That’s not the same as “selling off the team” ..

            That’s how I see it.

          2. I thought about Mol wanting to cash in as he can well use the money right now immediately when the rumours came out.

            Seems the deal was for Mallya and Sahara to be equal partners in the business for now, although it remains to be seen what te future brings. It does mean FI going more Indian wich can only be good for F1 in India.

          3. Agree withs Rits and BasCB. Whether he lies or not depends on how you define ‘selling out’.

          4. And isn’t it normal for any business in the midst of a undecided deal to deny stuff? He’s a businessman talking about his business, not some holy-man talking about religion!
            Mr. JS over on the other side has gone completely bonkers and sounds like Mallya personally caused him a huge amount of loss!!

            You’d think a F1 journo who’s been around for decades would know how business deals and F1 work and what people normally say when asked about a private ongoing deal process..

    2. @charlie_whiting
      Fake Charlie Whiting
      Apparently when Vijay denied Force India was for sale it was because he’d already sold it.

  6. this group is very dubious, but they have tons of money… they sponsor the national cricket team of India. I’m sure the fresh money in the team will make them take bigger steps & be a serious threat to top teams in the next season.

    1. Why is this group dubious? It is one of the largest and most well known business houses of India. They’ve always invested in sport and this is a very welcome move!

      1. recently regulators found them guilty of some serious wrong doings in some financial products they company had to offer. besides their source of investors i.e funding of their business is a huge smokescreen.

        i’m sure they made Mallya an offer he could not refuse.

        1. That kind stuff is attached to any big-money business anywhere in the world.. It’s not really a concern. Their source of investors is not something everyone ought to know. They are a long-established business house with a long running history of sport sponsorship.

          Let’s see this from the positive angle.

          1. @rits Agree on what you say about dodgy financial products being in any big-money business. But I think it is indeed a big concert, because of how widespread it is (sry to get a bit off topic here) ;-)

          2. @BasCB True. That’s something we can’t help! F1 itself has a LOT of dodgy money attached and bundles of controversial associations (Bahrain, China etc.).. So, to talk about that kind of stuff here is a bit “taking it out of context” ..

          3. Dubious??? Let’s have a look at the big banks in Europe and the UK – they destroyed the world financial system with dodgy products and dealings. Anything Sahara has done would be a flea bite in comparison.

    2. this group is very dubious, but they have tons of money…

      Most of the backers coming in F1 in recent times have been dubious and there is hardly any transparency on the source of funds for that matter, the backers around Black-Lotus, Middle east entities backing STR and other teams on grid. Than there are the group of investors that were to invest in the “Sauber Club” or something that Monisha mentioned (that too after Carlos Slim announcement)

  7. Here we go again. This team seems not have stability. A shame.

    1. this group is a huge stability. they have tons & tons of money to waste.

    2. Why? It is a team that made it from a hopeless backmarker to the upper mid-field. And as Dev said, there is going to be more money. Looks pretty stable to me…

  8. Yeah, not the most elegant logo I’ve ever seen, but I’ll bet some people here on F1 Fanatic could help them out with that…

    1. As I posted above, changing the logo without fantasy but at least using the 2011 Force India logo and leaving proportions as they are, brings to this: http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6167/6238212010_6b130a065d.jpg

  9. logo is certainly horrible! But cash influx is very good for the team :)

    1. Agree with both of your points!

    2. @malleshmagdum I say they could take inspiration from your avatar, looks great! :)

      1. @ScuderiaVincero thx bro….found the base Indian tricolour with a big W online……had do some major touch-ups to bring it down to what u see now…..All that on Microsoft’s Paint!!!!! It was tiresome!

  10. *bangs head* *claps hands*
    – Mixed emotions –

  11. they should ask 99designs.com to make one for them! :P

  12. What a difference in reporting, checkout other blog.
    I don’t want to make it obvious by stating the name.
    I haven’t seen such condescending remarks from a responsible pen.
    Keith, how do you perceive this change in ownership? Is it the kind of same buy that STR went through?

  13. Well, Sahara just seem to have typed their name, then pasted it into the Force India logo. Looks terrible, and hope they get a better, proper one done for next season. I also wonder if the livery will be majorly different.

    Moving on from the appearance view, I’m slightly peeved with Mallya, since he denied all reports a week ago, just to go and sell a stake in it. What effect will this have on the team though? Will Sahara want a Indian driver? If so, good news for Chandhok, and bad news for Hulkenberg. But hopefully the cash influx will help push Force India even higher. I don’t know how much this will change the 2012 car, but this will surely help them in the future. I’m just glad FI hasn’t changed hands completely, Jordan, Midland, Spyker, Force India; way too may name changes in my opinion.

  14. OmarR-Pepper (@)
    12th October 2011, 18:04

    If it’s true what I read on the first comment here, Karun may have a good chance to run FI next year. If he does have the seat, I hope he don’t screw it up. Senna proved, for example, that a nice ride makes him an average pilot.

    1. @Omarr-Pepper I could only see them choosing Hulkenburg to be honest and I doubt that will happen. Di Resta is still a rookie and Sutil is probably the most loyal driver on the grid.

  15. Please can I point out that its the Mol Family, which owned 50% alongside Mallya, that sold its majority stake and not Mallya. Mallya only gave up 7.5 %.

    1. That makes more sense thanks for the info I was starting to fear that Force India one of the only realtively new teams to suceed was faiding away.

    2. If only people would get their heads out of wherever they have ’em stuffed, they would easily see (read) what you just mentioned. Instead, they just jump on their high horse and make all kinds of ridiculous statements (including some veteran scribes)..

  16. In spite of Force India being run by British technical people and driven by a Brit and a German, Sahara Group’s Chairman is already giving statements saying they will teach the Western World how good India is in F1. No, I’m not a Westerner. I’m a 100% Indian man. It’s a shame that ownership of an F1 team now virtually belongs to not only a dubious business house that’s also infamous for its many shady financial dealings with the public. Mr. Mallya, if you wanted money (to buy another ‘largest’ yacht to anchor in the Monaco harbour?), you should have sold the Force India stake to the Tata Group – the Indian business house famous for its humanity.

    1. do you think tata wanted it? sahara group must have arm twisted mallya into this… they have the blessing of people who matter.

      1. they have the blessing of people who matter.

        Whose blessings are you talking about?

    2. Tata group have been around for more than century now and have good business acumen, they have made smarter investment in F1 through sponsoring career of “Best Indian Driver” whom the public can identify, not to mention strategic alignment with Ferrari both on technology side and their tie-up to provide service support to Ferrari in India.

      Sahara, Mallya are the breed of the neo-rich people who have made their fortune by hobnobbing with those in power. These kind of people will come and go.

      And keep in mind Mallya went around only to find a shady backer rather than mainstream business houses in manufacturing, automotive, financial, FMCG or service sector.

      And anyways if you have seen most of the investment coming into F1 is from questionable sources. So Tata group have kept their involvement in F1 in line with their ethos (word that is not exactly popular in F1)

  17. Can they rename the team without overall agreement? I mean other teams.
    Or this is something different from the case with Team Lotus, LRGP & HRT?

    1. I think since it’s just a “sponsorship” name change, it will be allowed to happen. Much like if McLaren were to lose the Vodafone sponsorship, they would most likely be allowed to drop that part of their official name. And of course Ferrari just recently dropped the Marlboro bit from theirs.

      But that’ll be the nth name change in a few years: Jordan, Midland, Spyker, Force India, Sahara Force India.

    2. It’s the chassis that both Lotii are trying to rename. This year’s LRGP is still a Renault R31.

      1. @KaIIe, @PJTierney thank you very much

  18. in a positive side with more money coming in, we can expect FI to develop into a team like redbull or atleast they can move up the ladder in the F1 championship.

  19. We have to wait and see what kind of influence does sahara have over FI in future.

    1. we can expect FI to develop into a team like redbull

      @Raveendhana Wishfull thinking and the answer is NO.
      When Vijay Mallya acquired & announced the launch of his Force India team, he charted a good roadmap to bring the technically challenged Spyker F1 to its original state (Jordan F1); tied up with Airbus industries to leverage their CFD knowledge; gave opportunities to potential talents; tasted success briefly in 2009; still chasing for 5th position in 2011 championship. But, to take the team to a different dimension or capability – Yes, they need a brand new leadership and a new vision…. Just the money from Sahara is not sufficient.

      We have to wait and see what kind of influence does sahara have over FI in future.

      It was already covered in this article…. they are going to pump in $100m. Unfortunately the “influence” will stay just monetary and Sahara’s vested interest in this investment may stay only as “commercial” IMO. We will hate to see this team & the sport is made a mockery something like Indian Premier League… it plainly takes away the jist of what Formula 1 is.

  20. The logo is rubbish and the name is rubbish, but I hope the team keeps the pace they have now.

  21. Liar, liar…

  22. Say what you want about Mallya but he has managed to turn the complete underdogs that were Spyker into a serious midfield team that has been able to attract three very decent drivers and is currently fighting for 5th place in the teams’ championship. In my opinion, VJM should be praised for that.

    It might be that VJM will step out of the team comtpletely over the coming months / years. In any case, the new management will have to work hard to ensure that the current competitiveness of the team is maintained as it will be extremely hard to raise it. Hopefully the current driver policy won’t change as hiring an Indian driver just because he’s Indian would certainly be a step back.

    1. Totally agree with Grits!!! mallya should be praised that he saved this great team and put them back where they should belong! just look at williams sadly they are moving backwards…
      force india needed to extra cash to move them to the next level!

      As a fan of this team since the jordan days and an brit indian. I really hope we dont put an indian driver in until they prove to be a great driver!! at the moment chandock is nowhere near to the current line up and we should keep Sutil and Di resta in the team!!!

      i really dont want Sutil to leave he has been loyal and brillant!!

  23. Saw that coming a mile off.

    BBT said on October 7, 2011
    Sounds like a sale in the AIR to me.
    Maybe not a majority stake.
    Really like what the team has achieved and the fact they give some potentially great drivers a chance.
    Will we see Di Resta and Hulk in Vijays team next session?
    That’s two questions one, the drivers and the owner

    Is it good or bad, the driver line up and the form in the first three races will tell use.

  24. *tell us in 2012

  25. “As team principal, I will continue to run the team and I have no plans whatsoever to exit.”

    100% accurate, people must be a bit naive to not realise what that means, no lies.

    1. Thanks to people like you, we can still believe there’s some sense left in people!

      I can’t believe so many just jumped off the bridge with those ridiculous views of a so-called veteran journalist who denies to publish comments that question his view!

      1. That veteran is still in denial about Spygate 2007 saga and that certain British driver has lost his edge due to loss of focus.

        While I agree with JS that LH has oodles of talent, but all the preaching he gave to Massa are applicable to LH as well.

        But then denial is the first step to transformation, so there is hope :)

        1. I won’t hold my breath for it! I couldn’t care less what he thinks or says any more.
          Here’s the thing though – he’s known to hate Mallya for some reason! And also says stuff like “I have no idea where your comment went, maybe it was in a disrespectful tone..” Well, I run a blog myself and know how commenting and moderating work.

          1. Here’s the thing though – he’s known to hate Mallya for some reason!

            The veteran journo is known to like Liuzzi a lot. He made a hue and cry over Liuzzi’s dismissal from Force India last year too. His hatred for VJM stems from that.

          2. @Sumedh, Rits – Given the his egotistic ways, the way he backs up vendor payments.

            Kind of unwanted vitriol he has spewed against his own compatriot drivers (who are doing best of the limited opportunities they have got, and all for no fault of their own) I am not fan of the liquor baron.

            Given the promise NK had shown in the Midland team, while Carlin was still at helm, I firmly believe if VJM had been graceful and worked with NK grow with his F1 venture NK would have delivered same results that Sutil-Fisico delivered.
            Even Sutil-Fisico-Liuzzi didn’t outshine the FI car capabilities. and only good results that team got right upto 2010 were flukes.

            So VJM is not completely a picture of piety himself.

            But refuting the press claims while the deal was not formal is VJM’s choice and saward was not fair in this instant….

  26. I wonder if this means they’ll want Sutil’s sponsors less and opt for the Hulk…

  27. Hmm what were those words again…

    “I was shocked to read a media report that I am selling the Force India Formula 1 team… This is completely untrue and without any basis whatsoever”

    I know there is probably hundreds of legal reasons he can’t say anything but can’t they just say “no comment” instead of telling a blatent lie.

    & the logo is rubish.

    1. In Yes, Minister if you gave your full backing to someone it was the kiss of death. It’s the same in day to day politics, the more a politician professes a standpoint the more likely they are to do exactly the opposite.

  28. Is it not Michiel Mol?

    1. And his father, Jan

    2. @robinrhysjones Typo, fixed it. Thanks.

  29. It’s just a huge investment in my eyes, which allows him to both keep the team going in his name and carry less financial weight. A nice sum of money to add to the kitty as well. Now just to sort out a logo!

  30. How is there money coming in, I would like to know. I mean, there Has been à sale of shares, so those shareholders get money, not Force India, I would say…
    I have to do some Googling, but I think Mol got some serious profit here!

    1. According to reports (official afaik), Sahara is investing $100 million in the team. What part of that money went into buying the shares (or if that’s completely apart from buying the shares) is not clear, but, a good amount went into the team funding, which is all I care about.

      1. @verstappen according to Wikipedia

        On 9 September 2006, it was revealed that the team was sold to Spyker Cars, a Dutch manufacturer of hand-built cars.[3] Spyker paid $106.6 million for the team

        was for the Midland F1 team, (here’s another source saying it was 68 m immediately and 2 installments of 15 and 23m made in the next 2 years ). Michiel Mol was then into the team management. Spyker sold to Mol and Mallya in october 2007 (after the initial payment +first installment) for 88 million EUR.
        In that case Mol would have brought in 44 Million EUR. This deal now values FI at about €190m (or $253m) If Mol sold his shares (from 50% down to 15%) it should have given him €66.5 or about a 50% ROI and revaluing the worth of the 15% stock he kept

        @rits I must say I am curious in how the deal works to bring money into the team though. Its the same as with the Williams sale, if someone buys into the team that means the money is going to the partner who sells. So the team does not really get better for it.

        Only way the team got investment from this is a deal where they issued 10% new stock, watering down Mallya’s stock from 50% to 42.5% (instead of selling those 7.5%). Mol would first sell about 32,4 % in the bussines to Sahara, before new shares are issued. Sahara would then buy the new shares to get to a total shareholding that is equal to Mallya’s. In that way albout $24m would be invested into the team, Mol would get about $76m (€ 56m or 20% ROI).

        What I am thinking after reading

        1. @BasCB – According to the latest statements, the whole of the $100 million is going into the team to upgrade facilities, wind-tunnel and such. None of the shareholders are taking any money out.

          Here’s the story:

          http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/racing/Our-goal-is-to-reach-the-top-of-Formula-One-Roy/articleshow/10332623.cms

          1. @Rits, but the article is a bit short on details. As @verstappen @BasCB say, when Mol reduced his share to 15%, it is hard to see how he didn’t get money for that; and bringing out new/more shares is really the only way that brings money in; but if Mol kept all his shares then it would mean they had to get out two times as many new shares as there were, and Mallya somehow got a lot of new those too, to end up with 42.5%.

            And Mol definitely can use the money, he was one of the Spyker/Saab merger money providers I think, so far that didn’t bring much return …

  31. Oh, yeah – I called it when I said Mallya would probably be lining up to sell a part of his team, and not the whole thing.

  32. The team was doing good then why do you need to sale part of it? I think things won’t be the same as they are now from 2012.

  33. I kind of like the new name – “Sahara” doesn’t sound as forced as, well, “Force India” (yes, I know it’s “Sahara Force India”). If Mallya wants out, I wonder if the team will change their name to something a little more flowing.

    Of course, that would make three teams wanting to change their names – Lotus, Fernandes and now Force India. And rumour suggests Hispania want a name change, too. But this just highlights how silly the rules preventing name changes are. Why should four teams be forced to race under names that are not representative of themselves?

    1. where have you been, Team Lotus=Lotus. Lotus Renault=Renualt. What you call ‘Hispania’=buy out ages ago know called HRT

      1. No, Team Lotus want to become Team Caterham. Lotus Renault GP want to become Lotus. Hispania has always been known as Hispania or HRT, but rumour has it that they want to change their name now that ownership has changed.

        1. No! What I stated is that Team Lotus are the ‘Lotus’ of F1. HRT is know the official name!

          1. Whenever your proven wrong, you just try to come up with something irrelivant contradicting what you first said, face it you know nothing about F1 you just wish you did!

  34. @wasiF1
    the biggest loser is the mol family not mallya, as mallya has lost only 7.5 percent of his shares with both sahara and mallya having 42.5percent shares each, whereas the mol family is reduced to 15percent.

    1. I think @raveendhana that actually the Mol family might be the ones profiting from this the most. They get a handy return on investment, and free up capital to use elsewhere even more lucrative.

      FI should be benefiting as well though as this new partner should be forging stronger relations with India and could bring longterm stability. cc. @wasif1

  35. @wasiF1
    actually mallya asked for sponsorship from sahara but sahara went into buying some shares in force india, so hes gonna invest $100m in the team now.

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