Uralkali said that it submitted the highest bid for Force India Formula 1.GETTY IMAGES
Russian fertilizer group Uralkali accused the administrator of Force India Formula 1 of "prejudicial and unequal treatment" during its failed attempt to buy the team this summer and said that it "would begin court proceedings," according to Foy & Ahmed of the FINANCIAL TIMES. Uralkali said that it "had submitted the highest bid for Force India" but that "misrepresentations and lack of transparency in the process run by the administrator [resulted in] a flawed sales process." The administrator said in response that it would "defend any legal action and was confident it would be dismissed." The London High Court action, which a representative of Uralkali said would demand damages worth "tens of millions of dollars," comes ahead of F1's Russian Grand Prix in Sochi this weekend. Force India went into administration in July. The team was "bought out of administration" last month by a consortium headed by Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll, whose son is a Formula 1 driver. Uralkali said on Thursday that it believed its bid for the team, which included a cash consideration of between £101.5M ($132.9M) and £122M ($160M), was "unfairly overlooked by administrators who chose to enter an exclusivity arrangement" with Stroll's consortium. Paul James Ostling, a senior independent director at Uralkali who led its Force India bid, said, "We have serious concerns as to why the administrators did not use the opportunity to maximize the amounts that could have been paid to creditors and shareholders" (FT, 9/27).
