Williams Grand Prix Holdings PLC has announced an increase in turnover from £90.8m to £102.3m, and pre-tax earnings of £9.8m, up from £8.2m. This is good news as it means that the team is at least financially stable, although it remains rather dependent on sponsorship from PDVSA, a deal which amounts to a considerable percentage of the total.
Chairman Adam Parr said: “The Group has enjoyed a strong performance over the last 12 months, in spite of continuing difficulties in the global economy. Our 2011 Annual Report shows strong results and our current cash position is excellent. At 29th February 2012, the Group held net cash of £29.2 million. We can therefore look ahead with confidence. We have made a number of new technical appointments that will strengthen our performance in Formula One and we are delighted with our new partnerships with Renault in Formula One and Jaguar on the C-X75 hybrid supercar project. Our new business developments across Williams Hybrid Power, Williams Advanced Engineering and the Williams Technology Centre Qatar are delivering promising results.”
joeblogsf1 
How many points was it again?
They had better hope that Mr Chavez stays in better health than of late.
Exactly! Rumor has it that Chavez has his multiple surgeries in Cuba, not because he thinks the doctors there are less skilled – but because he is so paranoid that he believes ‘evil’ forces will conspire to make sure he won’t wake up from these local surgeries.
The opposition inside the country is gaining traction and this F1 deal is being highlighted as the tip of the iceberg as an example of the graft and corruption Chavez has been responsible for. PDVSA has been Chavez’s personal bank account in funding his war against private enterprise and anyone, fellow citizens included, who support an open and democratic government.
Williams PLC and Mr. Parr would be advised to continue the hunt for a *new* major sponsor for 2013 and beyond as this contract could be ripped up (perhaps by mid-season) if the Venezuelan Congress decide that the these payments are illegal.
$46M for Maldonado? For one year? Jumping to $63M by 2015 (they hope). What a crazy world we live in. Meanwhile most of this nation receive few benefits from the oil wealth being generated but spent on so few.
I will always be amused by people who talk about something, specially the internal politics of a country like they have any idea, when they actually don’t. Funny.
Is this the result for the group, not just GP team?
Yes. Good point. The two are separate entities. Some people cannot distinguish between groups and teams.
Not that good according to the markets – the share price is down at the time of writing.
Old investment axiom: “buy on the rumour, sell on the results”. I’m involved in the mining industry and it is pretty standard that some high profile companies prices actually go down after they report good results.
How about make your own mind up, buy until it’s completely silly? Also set your sell numbers. Then you don’t feel bad when a wall of spec money pushes high and you never blame yourself for never selling at the absolute top. What I mean is you might go overweight, and shed a few during a stupid market, but keep what is the worth you assign. That way, no rumors, and no “reality” from accounts. Reality isn’t. How much of super liquid (up is always liquid, down is always illiquid) moves are created by who borrows against their existing holdings to add and then almost day trade, I don’t know. But that’s the advantage. Hold a lot of shares, you can lend them to the shorts, cover your finance for your long. Axioms may work, statistically over time. You loosing your shirt, Sir, is a outlier rounding error we thought irrelevant to our survey.
Yes John O but there are relatively very few shares available in WGP, thus they are unduly influenced by every sale or purchase. I doubt there are many available for shorting if any. Unfortunately my data stream does not include shares on loan in the Xetra market. The share price has come back to a bid of 19.3 Euro form 12.0 last year, so the engineering half of the business is doing ok but the F1 side must be heavily dependant upon sponsors.
You’re right, rpaco. Not much to buy or sell on that stock, and a short would be badly squeezed in an instant.
But that would also mean if you had balls, lending shares would be quite profitable if there was a customer – let them go short! I meant really in context of larger issues, not WGP. It’s actually quite hard to get allocations in WGP without being messed about. I’m buying only for the satisfaction factor, not in quantity to worry my pension account.
WGP really do need to think hard about the benefits of share splitting versus making it easier for those who want to spec to muck the price about. Thing is, I think key shareholders would need to sell down, to start a bigger game.
Longish while since i spoke to my brother on this, but he used to keep me fed with all sorts of tiny ex- uni startups who essentially were just generating IP, not getting as far as manufacture. That’s the kind of thing I’d want to put my money behind, if WGP is up to managing it.
I consider the company solid, but am looking at ten years before i intend to review my thought position. Maybe i’ll end up with quite a bunch of shares by then, who knows. I’m not sitting pretty, just comfortably.
One of the things that makes me comfortable is the thought that after bedding in to this new life, WGP may start to flex their intellectual muscles.
That will take FW and others to let the engineers lead real business processes, and I’d say that might be doable inside 5 years.
A hobby stock, but an interesting one, thus: a long long list, not quite Madamina il cataglio e questo, of vehicle tech startups who are barely startups, need a home and what the Russians call krisha, a roof.
I think the unvalued aspect of WGP is how Frank’s mantle might just create the right kind of nurturing place for neat, focused, innovation. Now that would be a legacy and a half. Meanwhile, can afford to loose my shirt on what I hold. This is a slow burner, but fascinating to me.
All best rpaco, cross your fingers i actually get to see the season start, prob see you about here in a couple of weeks! yours, – j
There has been no sign of such behaviour – the stock has been flat since the beginning of the year in relatively low volumes and hardly any shares have been traded in the last weeks. The market is positively underwhelmed by these results. I’m watching closely these shares as I picked up a hint of some very interesting market activity last season …
I really wonder how true that invoice from PDSVA is as it makes up a lot of turnover which would point to a weak company position if the figures are correct.
I’m rich!
Oh, no, erm . . ahhhh . . . been out of fashion to pay divvies since i was a little boy, and I’m not churning trades to pay my broker’s drinks . . .
and in any event, don’t want divvies, want them to spend on what they are doing.
Anyhow: Up Yours, Detractors! The one thing I do not anticipate from anything run by, or connected in any way to, FW, is accounts massaging or funny business. Maybe that’s why he was called a wanker . . called out some loud mouth jerks back when.
Confession: paying no attention, just buy a few more shares now and then. Rather have my faith in this than, say a “momentum” stock. Never been burned by a tech stock yet, but Jim Clark saying AAPL will be worth a Trillion before long, oh dear. Note to the unwary: shorting such stocks is for deep pockets only, and most tap out completely. (s’pose most can’t actually short stocks, needs a different kind of broker, but don’t do it mentally either, you’ll waste quality time with your own mind.)
It is good to be reminded that Williams actually have something else going besides the GP team.
Good for them-I wish them well in their other endeavors as well as in F1.