F1 is “racing ahead with a planned $2.5 billion initial public offering in Singapore,” according to Steger & Venkat of the WALL STREET JOURNAL. Sources on Wednesday said that private-equity firm CVC Capital Partners, which owns 63% of F1, has "hired UBS and Morgan Stanley to join Goldman Sachs Group Inc. as the top banks on the share sale, slated for sometime this quarter.” The F1 offering “could be the biggest listing since Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing raised" $5.5B from "listing his port operator Hutchison Port Holdings Trust in March 2011." Two local banks "with junior roles on the deal, Singapore’s DBS Group Holdings Ltd. and Malaysia’s CIMB Group Holdings Bhd, will help market the deal to the region’s wealthy, sports-mad investors” (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 4/26). Meanwhile, in London, David Tremayne wondered what F1 gained from going to Bahrain for last weekend’s Grand Prix. In public relations terms it was “a spectacular own goal, with global media coverage slamming the perceived greed of those who run the sport ... and reinforcing the view of it as an elitist sport run by and for multi-millionaires who are unconcerned for humanity.” Tremayne noted descriptions "such as 'vile', 'amoral' and 'lacking any moral compass' have been applied to F1 in recent days” (London INDEPENDENT, 4/24).
