The Latest A1GP Season 5 Position

28/07/2010

At irregular periods I keep checking the go-dove website for any clues to the A1GP situation – today I did just that and clicked to view the catalogue – I noticed that the number of lots available for bids had fallen from 771 to 745.

It seems that the Lola section of lots have been removed which I assume means they have been sold.

12/07/2010

I have had confirmation from a well placed source that a genuine bid has been made to the Administrator and that if the creditors support the bid, A1GP will ride again.

05/07/2010

Autosport.com are reporting that the A1GP saga could be over by the end of July.

Full Story

24/06/2010

And yet again the A1GP sale is re-opened with a closing date of 31/08/2010.

31/05/2010

A1GP sale marked as closed again.

05/05/2010

No idea what is going on!

GoDove have put A1GP back up on their website with a closing date of 31st May 2010.

So obviously not sold but why did they take it down?

04/05/2010

On the GoDove website, the auctioneers of A1GP, the top banner advertising the A1GP sale has been taken down so we believe this confirms a sale of the A1GP Series.

01/05/2010

So far we have only been able to confirm that at least 2 firm bids have been made for the complete assets of A1GP. We assume that at least one is of an acceptable amount as the sale has been closed.

30/04/2010

GoDove the auctioneers of A1GP have listed today [30/04] as the final day for bids so hopefully we should get some news soon.

5pm Private Treaty Sale is now marked as “This event is now closed”

3/04/2010

“We have been speaking to a significant number of people for a few weeks, and all have adequate finance to relaunch the series. We are sure of that.” and then added that the assets are likely to go to auction in three or four weeks if no buyer is found.

Another snippet of non-news being released it seems — ’speaking to a significant number of people for a few weeks’ – why not stop talking and do a deal? — ‘all have adequate finance to relaunch the series’ – so again why not do a deal? — ‘assets are likely to go to auction in three or four weeks if no buyer is found’ – hang on thought there were ‘significant number’ of people and ‘all have adequate finance’ !

30/03/2010

The auctioneers of the A1GP Series have now put together a downloadable sales brochure which you may want to keep a copy of…
A1GP Downloadable Sale Brochure
We have pointed out to them the glaring error in their ‘Background’ statement that A1GP ‘powered by Ferrari’ didn’t have its first outing at New Zealand in January 2008 but at The Netherlands in October 2008.

25/03/2010

A new statement from Tim Bramston, a partner with Griffins, the administrator of A1 Grand Prix Operations Ltd:

“We are delighted to be co-operating on this sale for the benefit of all of the creditors. We took the step of administration in order to re-unite the Ferrari powered cars with the intellectual property rights to use the brand. The vehicles have now been laid out for inspection in a single location and discussions are already underway with a number of interested parties. We are currently aiming to have a purchaser of A1 GP assets in place by the end of March.”

for the first time a suggested closing date.

21/03/2010

A1GP spokeswoman Ann Bradshaw spoke to the News of the World and said “Tony [Teixeira] is confident that it will reform [?return?] in one way or another later on this year and next season will go ahead” adding “…Tony is determined to save the series and is fighting get investment so that A1GP can continue…” and “…As far as he is concerned it is far from over and will do everything in his power to get it up and running…”
News of the World – Full Story

18/03/2010

We have noticed some changes in the conditions of sale “Offers are invited for the whole asset package, and/or substantial groups of assets therein”

Also the number of old Lola’s has increased “Fourteen single seat race car rolling chassis”

17/03/2010

So sad a sight – the Season 4 World Championship car waiting forlorn for a new owner to come along with their cheque book.

26/02/2010

Should there not be an acceptable offer made for the whole A1GP series there is a proviso “If not sold as a whole, the assets will be available in packages”. We hope that this is not necessary.

26/02/2010

Bridge Business Recovery have been appointed as liquidators of A1GP’s parent company – read full story HERE.

24/02/2010

Things are moving on the sale of A1GP – it seems that both A1 Grand Prix Operations Ltd and A1 Holdings Ltd are now both being offered as one lot. But so far there doesn’t appear to be a closing date listed.

By order of Timothy Bramston FCA re A1 Grand Prix Operations Ltd (in Administration) and Tony Murphy FCA re A1 Holdings Ltd (in Liquidation) Offers are invited for the whole

Everything is being sold by Private Treaty.

Private Treaty is a long-term sales process, where the markets and buyers are limited. Each sale contract is unique and is carried out by dedicated specialised Private Treaty team.
Private Treaty is the preferred option when trying to sell high value, specialised assets where there is a limited market. The longer selling period allows for detailed inspections, allows, corporations to work out exactly what they need and time for necessary capital expenditure approvals or fund raising to take place. It also allows the seller more time to consider offers and combination of offers to best suit their requirements.

12/02/2010

Following on from A1GP not making the first round of season five in Australia there has been a huge amount of political fall-out and there is now the ‘Auditor-General’s Report to Parliament No. 1 for 2010′ been published about this.

It can be seen in full here PDF : Warning it is very large.

10/02/2010

Today it was announced that the long awaited sale of A1GP the series is about to happen.

GoIndustry DoveBid are please to announce that its UK Insolvency team have been instructed by the Administrator of A1 Grand Prix Operations Limited (A1GP) to market and sell the assets of a single seater formula racing series.

6/02/2010

Alan Jones’s team, A1Team.Australia, lost a legal battle in the Sydney District Court on Friday [5/2/2010]. Jones was ordered to pay $354,560.93 in damages to a marketing company over unpaid debts.

30/01/2010

According to stopandgo.tv included in the sale are “also the commercial rights (such as use of the trademark “A1GP”) is to use the name and technology Ferrari” sorry about online translation.

30/01/2010

The current situation is, following a long procedure, the Court Appointed A1 Grand Prix Operations Ltd [A1GPOL] Administrator now has control of all the assets and plans to sell them as a series to the highest bidder on behalf of A1GPOL’s Creditors. Whether this will be by sealed bids or a form of auction we have no idea.

Assuming he is offered a fair price he will recommend it to the creditors and then go back to court and tell them he has, or has not, got an agreement of all parties. If everything is accepted the monies raised through this process, minus costs, will be divided up between the creditors relative to the amount owed to them, that is a percentage of the debt.

This is where some people have a problem – A1 Holdings Ltd [A1HL] is the largest creditor of A1GPOL – and they don’t believe it is morally right they get paid what could be about 70% of the money to be paid out. Morals don’t have anything to do with it. Unless there is something wrong legally every creditor is in line to receive a fair share of the money raised by the administration process.

We raised the point a couple of days ago that if the original organization bid for the series they would have a head start as they would be getting back a large chunk of their bid as the largest creditor. This in our opinion makes them favourite to retain the series if they bid.

We should point out we have no legal training or knowledge of the administration process – this is just our opinion.

We have no knowledge of the ownership of the title A1GP or Domain names so if someone other than the original organization wins the bid for the series they may not be able to race under the title A1GP or A1 Grand Prix. We believe that A1HL are the owners.

There are also many other rights that may not be available like the rights to use the term ‘powered by Ferrari’ even the rights to use Ferrari engines, etc..

Time will tell with all this.

29/01/2010

Ann Bradshaw, spokesperson for A1GP, speaking to the Press Association Sport’s, said “We haven’t raced and we’re not currently in a position to race in the near future, but this won’t be the death of the series, and organisers are already working towards the future,”

28/01/2010

It is being reported that the High Court ruled last week that the administrators of A1GP Operations Ltd had “better title” to the assets than A1GP boss Tony Teixeira’s holding company. Administrator Tim Bramston explained that he is now able to proceed with the sale, which will include the 25 Ferrari-powered A1GP cars used in the final year of the series in 2008-09.

Bramston said that he wants to sell A1GP as a whole to secure “the best price” for the creditors of the operations company.

“People have expressed interest in the past,” he said, “but I would like there to be a proper marketing process and can’t comment further.”

Asked whether Teixeira will be able to bid for the assets, Bramston stated only that they will go to the highest bidder.

28/01/2010

The original A1Team USA has today issued a statement regarding their legal matter with A1 Holdings.

A1 Team USA Holdings LLC (Team USA) has been awarded a $4.5 million dollar judgment against A1 Holdings Ltd., Antonio (Tony) Teixeira and Lyndhurst Holdings N.V., jointly and severally, for materially breaching a settlement agreement resulting from a lawsuit in the Circuit Court of Fairfax County, Virginia.

27/01/2010

Talking to Reuters in a telephone interview Tony Teixeira said about the reports he was interested in investing in Campos Meta1 F1 “There’s more than one group talking to Campos and for us it has got to be part of an A1 deal,” he added. “It’s all for A1. My ambition is to bring A1 into F1.”.

This confirms the position we have held for a long time that the plan is for A1GP to return.

25/01/2010

Energem has now been delisted from London Stock Exchange AIM and has issued the following statement:

Further to the announcements of July 16, August 6, September 11, September 22, October 22, December 9, December 31, 2009 and January 8, 2010, the Company announces that the funds due to it by certain related party debtors, amounting to approximately US$63.5 million in total (being the principal amount of US$54.0 million, due on December 31, 2008, plus further charges and accrued interest of US$9.5 million to date) (the “Funds”) have still not been paid.

Whilst the Company is still confident that it will receive the Funds in full, it is currently not in a position to finalise the Company’s audited annual financial statements, for the year ended 31 December 2008, and the Company’s unaudited interim financial statements, for the six months ended 30 June 2009, and related documents (together “the Accounts”).

As a result of the Company’s AIM securities having been suspended for a period of six months, the Company’s common shares will be mandatorily delisted from trading on AIM with effect from 7.00 a.m. tomorrow, January 21, 2010, pursuant to Rule 41 of the AIM Rules.

The board of Energem (the “Board”) is very disappointed with this outcome and would like to apologise to shareholders for the inconvenience this will undoubtedly cause to them. The Board would like to assure shareholders that it undertook all reasonable actions to prevent the Company from being delisted from AIM and that it will continue to seek the payment of the Funds, in full, on as expeditious a timetable as possible.

The Board would also like to confirm that it is the Company’s current intention, that once the Funds have been received in full, the Board will actively seek admission to a stock market such as AIM, TSX-V or such other market as the Board believes will provide the Company, inter alia, with access to equity raising capabilities, an enhanced public profile and a reasonable level of liquidity.

23/01/2010

There are still some A1 fans who believe we are something to do with A1GP – well no we are completely independent – in fact in January 2009 we had our A1GP media accreditation completely removed. However this has not stopped us from keeping everyone up to date with all the latest news about the series.

The last official press release from A1GP was prior to the first round of season five which was due to start in Australia and since then it has been all rumours – some accurate and some completely made up.

We have been lucky enough to be fed some inside information confidentially which has allowed us to point you in the direction that A1GP was heading. The confidential nature of the news we received has meant we could not tell you everything we knew.

There has been a lot of news about the troubles of A1 Grand Prix Operations Ltd, the UK arm running the series, which still continues under Court appointed Administration. There has been little news about A1 Holdings Ltd, the British Virgin Islands parent company, until this week. Another part of A1 – A1 Grand Prix Productions – has gone into compulsory Liquidation this week.

So this week the Administrator was in court representing A1GPOL, against A1 Holdings, and it seems succeeding to obtain A1 assets on behalf of the creditors. We assume this was the continuing struggle over ownership of the cars.

Next month there is going to be an attempt to wind-up A1 Holdings in the courts – we understand that the owners of season one A1Team USA are behind this with we believe a claim for $5m. As with the case against A1GPOL it is more than likely that others will join the action against A1 Holdings.

This all sounds very bleak for A1GP but remember this is all legal stuff – the Administrator of A1GPOL must sell everything to obtain a return for the creditors and why would anyone buy it all if not to race!

A1 Holdings Ltd – A1 Grand Prix Operations Ltd – A1 Grand Prix Productions are just companies that have been hit by the recession and found themselves unable to continue operating without fresh funds. If someone comes along with those funds then we could still see A1GP return later this year for season six.

We still believe that there is a plan for A1GP to return!

21/01/2010

It seems that the Administrator has won the battle with A1Holdings over who owns the car assets with the judge at today’s High Court action giving them to A1 Grand Prix Operations and therefore the Administrator of their assets.

18/01/2010

Following an earlier snippet of information we received about T.Teixeira investing into Campos Meta F1 we now have it seconded by showman, in the rumour page, that Bernie Ecclestone wants the finances of A1GP tidied up prior to his involvement in F1 if that is his intentions.

16/01/2010

TT Assen have now confirmed the change in event on 16th May 2010 from A1GP to SF series.

Although we were looking forward to a one-off race at Assen in May this could be a blessing in disguise.

We never believed that any of the listed races were feasible, apart from Assen, so in our opinion A1GP can now spend more time getting the series back onto a firm base before coming back in strength later.

We suggest you sit back and enjoy your choice of ’summer’ motorsport until A1GP returns later in the year – for it will – you have our word on that!

12/01/2010

It seems that Assen wants to wait for A1GP but as time ticks by without any concrete news on the series future activities they want to avoid ending up in the same situation as the Gold Coast, Australia, last year. So they have concluded a deal with Superleague Formula for those dates.

12/01/2010

The Superleague Formula have announced their race calendar with the removed event at Assen, The Netherlands, back in on 15-16 May which is the dates previously reserved for A1GP.

So far no calendar of events for 2010 has been posted on the Official Assen website but they still list A1GP on those dates on their front page.

If correct it must be assumed now that A1GP may not be running at all for Season 5.

08/01/2010

Further news on Energem situation:

Further to the announcements of July 16, August 6, September 11, September 22, October 22, December 9 and December 31, 2009, the Company announces that the funds due to it by certain related party debtors, amounting to approximately US$63.5 million in total (being the principal amount of US$54.0 million, due on December 31, 2008, plus further charges and accrued interest of US$9.5 million to date) (the “Funds”) have still not been paid.

Whilst the Company is still confident that it will receive the Funds in full, it can no longer guarantee that it will be in a position to finalise the Company’s annual accounts for the year ended 31 December 2008 and interim report for the six months ended 30 June 2009 and related documents (together “the Accounts”) by January 15, 2010.

07/01/2010

Following on from the A1GP spokespersons comment below “Creditors Committee had yet to decide how to proceed with the companies administration process” we believe a form of conference was held today to try and sort that out.

07/01/2010

As some of you are aware the Official A1GP.com website has been offline since before Christmas.

The German website Motorsport Total.com managed to reach an A1GP spokesperson by phone and was told that the problem was the Creditors Committee had yet to decide how to proceed with the companies administration process and therefore no bills had been paid. Therefore as the host and operator of the official website hadn’t been paid they removed the site from public access.

06/01/2010

It has come to our attention that the Official Sachsenring Circuit, Germany, website is showing A1GP sharing with ADAC GT Masters on the weekend of 7th-9th May 2010.
Sachsenring Circuit Link

05/01/2010

The above statement comes from an official document, unrelated to A1GP case, which we believe can help those of you who are having problems understanding the A1GP Administration process.

We are constantly being asked what is going on because you are race fans not lawyers — we have tried, in our limited way, to explain the situation.

Back on the 30th of October 2009 the Court appointed Administrator held a meeting of the creditors of A1 Grand Prix Operations where a Creditors Committee comprising of five – A1Holdings, URT, Ferrari, Pankl and Dr.Trafford — was appointed to simplify the process in the future. In total, A1GP Operations owes almost £100m+ to its creditors, over 250, although £85m of that is to British Virgin Islands-based parent company, A1 Holdings.

As you will notice in the statement above the Administrator primary job is to maintain the company as a going concern, and to realise the companies assets. this latter one was difficult due to assets being spread about not least with D.O.T holding the cars against their debt for transportation and storage. It was recognised that this process could take as long as 3 months to resolve.

You will notice that 85% of the money owed by A1 Grand Prix Operations is owed to A1 Holdings and this is where Energem comes into the mix. We believe that Energem lent A1 Holdings many tens of millions which was then lent to A1 Grand Prix Operations with we believe handsome interest rates attached.

This will explain why there are many posts on the internet linking Energem and A1GP which are both run by Tony Teixeira. Unfortunately some believe that the money Energem are waiting to be repaid will go towards A1GP when infact it is the other way round — Energem are waiting for the money to come from A1GP.

We believe that the money to secure A1GP’s future has been agreed subject to ‘due diligence’ inspection of the loan — after all we have just seen a world-wide economic collapse due mainly to nobody really checking properly.

Assuming everything is proven to be straight up when will you see an A1GP race?

Forget the FiA announced schedule of races — Brazil is just too soon to be on for first race plus there is another race in town on the same weekend — then without Brazil why would you go all that way just for one race in the Americas — in our opinion [guesswork] there is more likelihood of a single ‘We Are Back’ race at Assen, The Netherlands, before sorting everything properly for a normal Season 6 starting at the end of 2010.

The bottom line is only the Administrator and Creditors Committee know for sure what is going on and when – there is a report going round that A1GP have the cars back and are just looking for finance to continue racing — seem to remember that report previously prior to Surfers Paradise race in Australia — in reality if they had found the money to get the cars back they would also have had to settle with their creditors so why wouldn’t they have also arranged a financial package for racing!

We believe that everyone may have to wait for February before getting a definitive announcement but we will keep our ears to the ground and bring anything we hear to you on this page.

01/01/2010

It seems that Energem have not posted their accounts by the due date – 31/12/2009 – the following report was posted online yesterday….
“A $54m debt owed to Energem Resources has still not been paid.
But the company says it has been given assurances by the related party debtors that the funds will be paid in full by 8 January.”
….as all finances of Energem, A1Holdings and A1GP are tied together in one huge mess it must be assumed that the financing package is due to be finalized which would lead to Energem getting paid back the money put into A1GP thereby allowing them to release their accounts to satisfy the AIM Securities.

Assuming this is true then we have to assume that the A1GP re-financing is proceeding as expected.

22/12/2009

Information comes in many different forms and we had received a tip that the revival of A1GP was to be announced in February then today in the Malaysian Insider there was a line in a story about A1Team Malaysia – “assurances that a rescheduling of races is to commence in February next year” – which confirms this.

21/12/2009

To give you some idea my sources have sources who have sources and all are within the old A1GP family structure.

It really is a case of some knowing a bit of what is going on but nobody except the very top few know everything.

However the general consensus of all the confidential information we are getting is that A1GP will be coming back in 2010 as long as the finances, which are very complicated, can be sorted. We believe, reading between the lines, that finance has been agreed in principle but the details of the plan are being dissected before being cleared.

Energem, Teixeira’s parent company, has to have a finance package sorted prior to the end of the year or the company will be removed from the Canadian Stock Exchange listing, they are currently de-listed. They need to file their audited accounts by 31st December 2009 we believe.

20/12/2009

The FiA have released their 2010 International Series Race Schedule which includes 4 races under A1GP at Brazil, Mexico, Netherlands and Germany. These are dated between March and May with the German one TBA.

Our sources say that still nothing firm has happened yet regarding the saving of A1GP but there could be news in the new year.

13/12/2009

Although we can’t post any news yet we are regularly receiving positive news about A1GP.

We are still confident that A1GP will return and we hope there will be an announcement soon.

13/11/2009

It is now official that there will be no A1GP races in 2009.

The 2009 race schedule issued by the FiA are no longer listing any races this year.

However they are listing A1GP as a series so we must take heart from that.

06/11/2009

Following our earlier story, about the Creditors Meeting held last Friday 30th October 2009, the planned meeting for this week between the 5 nominated Creditors Committee has occurred.

There does not seem to be any early resolution of the financial position of A1GP.

The High Court appointed administrator Tim Bramston of Griffin’s still has to recover all the assets of the organisation which includes two sets of cars.

Once he has been able to do this, which could take up to three months, he can then try and put together a package to sell to any interested parties who would wish to continue with A1GP the series.

We believe that there is still only one interested party at this time – as we posted last month – an existing A1GP insider who is putting together a financial package with others, outside of the current management, to rescue the series.

At this time it has to be said that any rescue package is unlikely to come in time to rescue the current fifth season of A1GP. But if successful could get a new refreshed series to the start line for the following season in a far more healthy state.

Still if all of this fails to materialise then unfortunately the administrator would have to go back to the High Court and recommend liquidation of assets to pay creditors.

06/11/2009

A1 Grand Prix Operations, which controlled the logistical side of the series, went into administration in September.

Documents from the administrator Griffins reveal Ferrari is A1GP Operations’ biggest external creditor, heading a list of around 250 companies and individuals.

In total, A1GP Operations owes almost £100m to its creditors, although £85m of that is to British Virgin Islands-based parent company, A1 Holdings. According to Griffins, the total owed is expected to rise “as many claims are yet to be received”.
[source: thisislondon.co.uk]

30/10/2009

Today the administrator of A1GP held a 2 hour meeting with the creditors of which only about 17 turned up.

The outcome of the meeting was to appoint a Creditors Committee comprising of five – A1Holdings, URT, Ferrari, Pankl and Dr.Trafford – which will meet next week under the chair of the administrator Tim Bramston.

The administrator explained that he was unable to put an offer before them today due to not yet able to recover all the assets.

He will need to come to an agreement with D.O.T before this can be done.

His aim is to sell A1GP as a going concern but didn’t say if he had an offer.

The creditors committee’s job is to come up with an acceptable proposition which is fair to all creditors.

It is looking as though it could be at least 5 weeks and maybe longer before any solution may be found.

If no solution is found then it would return to the High Court where it is almost certain A1GP would be wound up and assets sold off for the creditors.

We have also found out that RAB Capital still hold their 80% holding in A1GP but that they offered a way out of the financial problems with a £10m input if A1GP matched it – the offer was turned down probably because A1GP couldn’t raise the £10m.

On the confusion over the car safety updates we have learnt that when the original deal with Ferrari for the season 4 car was completed the FiA was informed it was a 3 year car and they gave permission for it to complete this cycle before carrying out the upgrades. Subsequently this cycle was changed to a 6 year one which annoyed the FiA who then reversed their offer and insisted that the upgrades should be carried out prior to season five. It seems A1GP approached the FiA for permission to delay this until after Surfers Paradise, Australia, and you can guess what the answer was “F.O.”.

The total amount owed by A1GP is £100m with A1GP a creditor of £85m which is why they are on the creditors committee.

If by now you are thinking “what a mess” you are right.

We are hoping to be able to fill you in more next week.