Lafiti bails out Williams

Lafiti bails out Williams


http://www.gptoday.com/full_story/view/715223/Latifi_bails_out_Williams/


Although the amount is unclear, Michael Latifi, father of driver Nicholas, has joined HSBC in refinancing the company's corporate borrowings.

Worryingly, the loan is secured on the team's factories, land, plant machinery and even its historic collection of over one hundred title and race-winning cars.

Latifi, it will be recalled, also has a $100m stake in McLaren. [it was rumoured to be $250 in McLaren Group, not the F1 team]

"Following the sale of Williams Advanced Engineering at the end of 2019 we began a refinancing process," Claire Williams told Motorsport.com. "After considering a number of options, we have now concluded our refinancing with a consortium of lenders, all of which was negotiated on an arms-length commercial basis.

"The loan package provides us with the resources that we need moving forward," she added.

Latifi's involvement in the deal is through Latrus Racing, which he founded in 2012, and is involved in the racing activities of son, Nicholas.

Since the youngster was promoted to the race seat alongside George Russell, Latifi has brought a number of his companies on board as team sponsors as well as brokering a number of other deals for the team.

Whatever way one looks at it, at a time the likes of Jean Todt and Zak Brown admits their fears for the future, the American admitting earlier this week that the sport risks losing as many as four teams, for Williams to risk everything in this way is somewhat surprising and an admission of just how bad things are... despite the positive spin.


Last year, Williams sold a majority stake in Advanced Engineering to EMK Capital. In the meantime, it has become clear that this was accompanied by a thorough refinancing. Claire Williams is able to reveal this on Friday afternoon.

Advanced Engineering is completely separate from the Formula 1 team, as this department is only involved in the development and production of parts for the aerospace and automotive industries.