Paris (AFP)
The turnover of the activities related to Formula 1 of the American group Liberty Media collapsed in the 1st quarter with the suspension of the world championship due to the pandemic of coronavirus.
Liberty Media's revenue from F1, which it has promoted since 2017, fell from $ 246 million in the first three months of 2019 to $ 39 million this year, a drop of 84%, according to its results released on Thursday. .
The operating loss from these activities reached $ 137 million compared to a loss of $ 47 million over the same period last year.
All the Grand Prix of the F1 world championship, which was supposed to start in Australia on March 15, have been postponed or canceled and no date has yet been set for a resumption.
"F1 currently hopes to start racing in July and continue until December with a target of around 15 to 18 races. It is still unclear whether spectators will be able to attend," said Liberty Media in its press release of results.
The revenues that Liberty Media, which belongs to the American billionaire John Malone, generates from F1 come from the sums paid by the organizers of the Grand Prix, those paid by the broadcasters as well as sponsorship.
The revenues generated by F1 in the 1st quarter come only from sponsorship contracts associated with events not related to the Grand Prix, it was said from the same source, stressing that this situation should happen again in the 2nd quarter.
To free up the liquidity necessary for the payment of the sums which Liberty Media must contractually pay back to the F1 teams, the American group carried out in April through an accounting operation the transfer within its treasury of 1.5 billion dollars allocated initially to its SiriusXM satellite radio operations.
The share price attached to Liberty Media's F1 activities and listed on the Nasdaq electronic stock market has lost since the beginning of the year some 30% of its value.
© 2020 AFP