Williams Grand Prix, the parent company of British F1 team Williams, released its interim results Tuesday, showing group revenue grew to £80M ($105.5M) in the first six months to June 30. The group, which also includes Williams Advanced Engineering, was able to increase its revenue by almost £17M ($22.4M) in comparison to the same period in '15 (£63.1M). The group also unveiled a profit of £7.8M ($10.3M) for the first six months of '16. During the first six months of '15, Williams reported an EBITDA loss of £1.4M. The company's operating free cash flow improved from £7M last year to £13M ($17.2M) this time around. The group's F1 business generated revenues of £51.3M ($67.7M), including £4.1M ($5.4M) in profits. While the F1 team's revenue number is largely unchanged from '15 (£51.4M), profits more than doubled, up from £1.6M, due to a non-recurring sponsorship payment, Group CEO Mike O'Driscoll said. Williams Advanced Engineering reported turnover of £20.6M ($27.2M), with a profit of £3.5M ($4.6M). Both figures are improvements over '15, when the advanced engineering side announced revenues of £10.8M and profits of £100,000. O'Driscoll said the encouraging numbers are due to the diversification into new markets such as defense and health, as well as a strong customer base that saw Williams Advanced Engineering work on more than 40 projects to start the year, many of them are long-term. Williams Advanced Engineering is currently the sole battery supplier for Formula E. It also entered into a technical partnership with the Manor F1 team for the '16 season. Despite those and other contracts and the strong mid-year numbers, Williams, the only publicly traded F1 team, cautioned investors about the future. "There are headwinds that we must face in the second half of 2016 and into 2017, notably the increased costs that are incurred during a period of regulatory change in the sport, and predicted uncertainty in many world economies, and this will impact our near term results," O'Driscoll said. The Williams F1 team is currently fourth in the constructor standings with 111 points after 14 of 21 races.
