Jordan sold to Dubai royal family
By Kevin Garside
(Filed: 02/09/2004)
A £50 million deal that will see ownership of the Jordan grand prix team pass to the ruling family of Dubai will be concluded this week. Under the terms of the sale, which will safeguard the future of the team, founder Eddie Jordan will retain a 15 per cent stake.
Jordan is one of only three independent teams left in Formula One and would almost certainly have gone the way of Prost and Arrows next year had a deal not been struck. Annual running costs of £50 million, a third of that spent on engines alone, were proving increasingly difficult to meet. Jordan said only last Friday that he would have no option to close the team down if a buyer could not be found.
The Al-Maktoum family have acquired a debt-free organisation and the team's Silverstone site. Jordan, who held a 51 per cent stake, will clear a nominal sum, with the majority of the cash going to Irish investors Merrion Capital.
The move satisfies two major criteria. It gives the Al-Maktoums and Dubai the stake in Formula One they desperately wanted following the unveiling of the Emirate state's new circuit last year, and it guarantees 200 jobs at Jordan HQ at Silverstone.
Of the current Formula One teams Jordan are the fifth most successful, winning four grands prix. They finished third in the 1999 constructors' championship.
Since then performances have tailed off dramatically as costs have spiralled
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