Russians sue over Force India sale

FORMULA 1

A Russian company that failed in its bid to buy the Force India Formula 1 team is suing the administrators responsible for choosing Lawrence Stroll and his consortium as the British squad’s saviour.

Uralkali, a global fertiliser power, is linked to Dmitry Mazepin, the father of GP3 race winner and current Force India junior Nikita (both pictured below). It joined the running to save the Force India team from administration but was unsuccessful.

When Stroll and his colleagues were announced as the new owners of the team, Uralkali threatened legal action after raising concerns about the way it was handled. Stroll’s consortium ended up not taking control of the company as a going concern because of problems caused by a High Court freezing order issued in favour of 13 Indian banks, a legacy of previous Force India owner Vijay Mallya’s troubles.

Instead, the Stroll group was able to buy the assets and agreed with the FIA to enter as a ‘new’ team, Racing Point Force India. Uralkali is unhappy about this too, as it believes it should have had the opportunity to engage in an asset sale.

It announced ahead of the Russian Grand Prix, of which it is a sponsor, that it had launched legal action in London’s High Court following “inadequate responses” from the administrators, Geoff Rowley and Jason Baker of FRP Advisory LLP.

Uralkali claims it was told by the administrators that its bid – a cash consideration of between £101.5million and £122m – was the largest and therefore should have been successful. It states it would have satisfied creditors, including Mercedes, paid administrator costs and backed a five-year development programme, as well as leaving £40m spare to distribute to the old Force India’s sole shareholder Orange India Holdings Sarl, held subject to the terms of the freezing order.

The administrators initially stated that they were not aware of such action, but later hit back claiming they acted appropriately and were confident that the legal claim would be rejected. They claimed Uralkali was only bidding to buy the assets and did not table a complete rescue proposal to keep Force India operating as a going concern.