Mining titans, Rothschild punt Cape Town F1 development

A South African consortium led by former Sibanye Stillwater chief executive officer Neal Froneman is working with Rothschild & Co. on a bid to bring Formula One racing back to the continent.

Froneman, mining veteran Srinivasan Venkatakrishnan and law firm Webber Wentzel’s Robert Appelbaum are planning to build an R6.7 billion($410 million) motorsport complex in the wheat-growing Swartland region north of Cape Town, Bob Hartslief, a businessman who’s part of the consortium, said in an interview.

Read: Cape Town may pitch in to host F1 race, seeks E-Prix return

Froneman’s consortium would be the second group seeking to bring Formula One racing back to the continent.

South African businessman Toby Venter also wants to rent out Kyalami raceway in Johannesburg, which he owns, to a winning bidder.

Venter, who is also chief executive officer of Porsche South Africa, said last year that upgrades were underway to secure Formula One accreditation from the sport’s governing body, Federation Internationale de l’Automobile.

Formula One races were held at Kyalami intermittently between 1967 and 1993.

The Blue Mountain Racing Grand Prix group of Froneman is working on the business and financing structure, said Hartslief.

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The mooted Cape Town development will include a Formula One-compliant circuit, which will cost about R2 billion, as well as conferencing and exhibition facilities, hospitality infrastructure and residential property, according to details of the proposal seen by Bloomberg.

“Modern Formula 1 is no longer built around circuits alone,” Froneman said in a statement on Tuesday. “The sport has grown into a global entertainment property comprising 24 events a year, each anchored in a city the world already wants to visit.”

Swartland has the space and service capacity that the Formula One project would require, he said.

Froneman said that a new-build development would “avoid the disruption and inconvenience to residents, as well as the significant public costs associated with street circuits, which make such a proposition unfeasible for a city like Cape Town.”

Rothschild is acting as the financial adviser on the project as the group seeks to secure Formula One’s approval, attract corporate partners and satisfy government requirements that the event should not draw on taxpayer funding, said Hartslief.

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The group is generating support from some of Africa’s largest companies as part of a sponsorship model designed to underpin the race’s license fee, he said.

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The project has the support of the provincial government and the country’s sports department, BMR said.

The project envisages a venue capable of accommodating 125 000 spectators, Hartslief said. The group has submitted a response to Formula One’s initial technical and commercial requirements and is going through an evaluation process that could take to take between 12 to 15 months, he said.

Formula One has grown into a global phenomenon thanks in part due to the success of the Netflix show Formula 1: Drive to Survive. Growing popularity has fueled the company’s valuation, now more than $23 billion. Liberty Media paid $4.4 billion for the business in 2017.

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