一级方程式赛车找寻新的投资者

The drive for new investors, one of the most successful Formula 1 racing teams has settled on a share price. Williams Grand Prix holdings is gearing up for a new listing on the Frankfurt Exchange. cnn's Jim Boulden caught up with the company's chief and wanted to know from Adam Parr why he's taking Williams from a company owned by a handful of people, with all the difficulty that comes along with being a publicly traded one.

A: As a sports team, there are two, there are two initial models.

J: Yeah.

A: Theoretically. One is you have a majority shareholder and or owner of the team who dominates it. Or maybe you go for public ownership model. And we’ve decided that the best for us, in the longer term, is public ownership model because of its stable basis for the future.

J: So you're talking about the next generation of owners of Williams.

A: Yes.

J: Because their first generation is moving on?

A: In some at some point in the future.

J: Yes.

A: Exactly.

J: And selling those shares for this, this is not going to be new shares. You're not diluting the existing structure?

A: No. We have never, as a team, asked our shareholders for money. We have always run within our revenues, the revenues that we can generate. And that's a very important principle that we will be maintaining in the future.

J: When you look at these cars, of course, it's all full of sponsorship. I always thought that's where Formula 1, other than TV, of course, got its money. Does this mean you're going to be less reliant on the sponsors? Is this because you're not getting as much sponsorship as you want? Or is this something simpler?

A: No we, sponsorship is fundamental to our revenue base. And we've got so, which is to say we've got some fantastic partners. We have AT&T as our title partner, Thomson Reuters, Ranstadt, and Perevessa has just joined us this year. So we've got some, some world class sponsors.

J: We had RBS, right?

A: Yes.

J: But I mean banks still have problems. And did you think maybe sponsorship isn't the long term, isn't going to have the long term benefits that it's maybe had?

A: No, on the contrary...

J: OK.

A: I think it's going to and yes, it's true, we've, sadly, lost RBS at the end of last year. But there are, you know, UBS joined the sport last year and Santander sponsors two teams, world class banks who are relatively new into the sport. So I've got no doubt that will grow up again.

J: Some of the more unkind rumors are that Williams are desperate for money.

A: Um.

J: You don't agree with that?

A: Well, I don't agree with that because we've made profits in 2008, 2009, 2010. We have a fully contracted budget for 2011 and the vast majority of our budget for 2012, as well. So it is not about being desperate for money. We're a profitable business. And that's the only reason we can come to the market.

J: And some buy shares in Williams, if they get enough shares, then they can join you in the, on the paddock, is it?

A: Exactly, we're gonna create an owners’ club.

J: Right.

A: A bit like owning a bit of a race horse. And you can get in behind the scenes and get into the garage and really experience Formula 1 in a way that money can't buy.

J: But don't most people love this not for the money, obviously, but because of the sport. But you're trying to bridge both by making more money, bringing people in looking for a good investment or do you think most people will do it because they want to have the experience of Formula 1?(No, I…)

A: I hope and believe that people will invest because it's a good investment. And that's what I want them to focus on. If they love Formula 1, that's a bonus to me. But investment is investment. And I'm a businessman by that kind and I think running a good business for the benefit of your shareholders is, you know, is one of the great joys in life and it's one of the great challenges. When you combine that with a great sport that's also very difficult, you've got a wonderful combination.

J: Realistically, where can Williams finish in 2011?

A: I believe, we finished sixth last year, which was not good enough.

J: No.

A: And I'd like to see some preview on that by at least a couple of places.

J: OK. So still very ambitious?

A: Yes. Absolutely.

J: Yes.

A: We live to race.

J: Yes.

A: We want to win.

Now, that has to be a mantra for anybody in that business. We live to race. We want to win