[Tushar]

The Sahara Group will be selling its 42.5% stake in the Force India F1 team. The company acquired the stake in a $100 million deal that was orchestrated in 2011 just a few weeks before India's inaugural grand prix.

Sahara has reportedly sought permission from the Supreme Court of India to sell its stake in Force India, along with assets like some of its hotels and aircrafts to raise around INR 53 billion or $778.38 million. The action is being taken to help release Sahara's founder Subrata Roy from jail and to re-pay several investors who purchased bonds that have been declared illegal by the apex court.

The remaining stake in the F1 team is owned by the UB Group's head, Vijay Mallya (42.5%) and Dutch entrepreneur Michiel Mol owns the remaining 15%. Previous reports suggested that Force India would be rebranded as Aston Martin Racing, but those plans seem to have gone on the backburner for now.

Source: ET Auto

[GTO]

Must be the only team in history where BOTH owners are in trouble. One is bankrupt & in jail, the other is bankrupt & in courtrooms.

Keeping that in mind, it's a miracle that Force India wraps up the year with 5th or 6th positions in the constructor's championship. Says a lot about the team, drivers & Mercedes power .

Going to be a hard sell - related link.

[Ramon]

Though as a die hard automobile enthusiast and someone who was over the moon when Mallya first floated his plans for the "First Indian F1 team", One I strongly believe that the nation would be better served if both -Sahara and Kingfisher let go of the F1 team and repay the thousands of crores due to the nation.

That would be better for the nation than having an " Indian F1 team" with almost zero presence in India, Zero percentage of Indian staff/drivers.

Mallya seems to have all the money do everything else in the world other than repaying his loan.

[D33-PAC]

Doing business in India is such a nightmare or at least it seems to be so.

Why does Subroto Roy or whoever is running Sahara need the permission of the government to conduct a free market transaction between one private party and another ? Whether he gets the money or not to pay up should be the concern of the government, not when he will and whether he the authority to even do so.

[bhandary]

Originally Posted by GTO

Must be the only team in history where BOTH owners are in trouble. One is bankrupt & in jail, the other is bankrupt & in courtrooms.

Keeping that in mind, it's a miracle that Force India wraps up the year with 5th or 6th positions in the constructor's championship. Says a lot about the team, drivers & Mercedes power .

Now that Mr Mallya is relieved of his day-today activities at USL, he could spend his full time in nurturing Force India, promoting F1 in India and identify potential talents within India to run the team. With his business acumen he could be a good team strategist for Force India too. Offcourse his calender will still be relevant to the F1 glamour world.