Williams F-1 Team Owner Mulls Sale of Engineering Arm Stake: Sky

(Bloomberg) -- Williams Grand Prix Holdings Plc is considering selling a stake in its engineering unit after being approached multiple times about a potential deal, Sky News reported.

The owner of the Williams Formula One team is thought to be open to selling a majority stake in Williams Advanced Engineering, but the more likely outcome is a deal involving a minority stake being sold to a third party, Sky said.

Sky also reported:

• Williams Grand Prix has received expressions of interest for WAE from a number of private equity firms.
• Williams could also take on debt to finance growth of WAE.
• Lazard, Williams’ corporate adviser, hasn’t been instructed to begin any sort of formal process for WAE.

Williams Advanced Engineering has a history of working with automakers. Bloomberg has previously reported on collaborations with both Lotus and Aston Martin.

Williams Grand Prix declined to comment to Sky for their story. Bloomberg didn’t immediately receive a response from Williams outside of normal working hours.

To contact the reporter on this story: Daniel Zuidijk in London at dzuidijk@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Katerina Petroff at kpetroff@bloomberg.net, Sara Marley, Michael Winfrey

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