Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone has revealed that he is interested in buying Mediobanca's minority stake held in Ferrari during a interview with Italian newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport.

Italian bank Mediobanca have made it very clear recently that they wish to divest themselves of their shareholding in the Maranello-based sportscar maker. Mediobanca took up a minority stake when Fiat diluted their own shareholding to 56pct in 2002 at a point in time when they urgently needed to raise cash. The bank led a consortium of international banks with the promise that they would be able to quickly recoup their investment through a planned stock market listing. However the IPO was postponed by Fiat at the last minute several times and the then Ferrari President Luca di Montezemolo, the main driving force behind the proposed listing, was promoted to become Chairman of the Fiat Group, changing his priorities in an instant. Last July the consortium's stake was diluted when the Mubadala Development Company, a investment company wholly owned by the Government of Abu Dhabi, bought a 5 pct share. The deal saw Mubadala paying 114 million euros for the stake, valuing Ferrari at 2.28 billion euros.

Last month industry sources claimed that Fiat Group CEO Sergio Marchionne would be helping Mediobanca to find a buyer for their stake, and last Wednesday a spokesman for the bank admitted they were in talks with a potential buyer, and the whole ownership issue would be resolved within "a month or so".
 

Mediobanca have been restructuring their diverse investment portfolio in recent months and no longer consider their Ferrari stake to be a strategic long-term holding.

Now 75-year-old Bernie Ecclestone, the boss of Formula One Management (FOM) which controls the long-term rights to running the F1 World Championship secured from the FIA, has emerged as a potential buyer for Mediobanca's stake in comments made to influential Italian newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport. "It does appeal to me and it would appeal to me to own a part of it. But it also depends on how much they want."

Ecclestone already has a very close relationship with Scuderia Ferrari, who became became the first of the F1 teams to sign up to the proposed new 'Concorde Agreement', which is scheduled to come into force in 2007 when the existing one runs out. It was an action which saw Ferrari splitting away from the main manufacturer grouping in Formula 1 who have resisted signing the new agreement and have been threatening to breakaway and form their own racing series.