General
Wolff takes another stake in Williams
- GPblog.com
Toto Wolff is not only team boss of Mercedes, but the Austrian is also busy with all kinds of other things, including investments. He already invested in Aston Martin and now he's also taken a five percent stake in Williams. This would be a first step to secure later steps should Wolff want to take a larger stake in the team.
Loose since 2016
Toto Wolff was previously involved with Williams, but in 2016 he sold all his shares of the team. Now he's rejoining the team, which announced last week that it would be open for a full sale because they're in financial dire straits. According to journalist Peter Windsor, with this first step, Wolff would secure priority to take over the entire team if he wanted to.
This is not specifically about five percent of the shares, but about a guarantee that he will get priority over buying the actual shares. Windsor on Twitter: "Good to see that Mercedes' Toto Wolff yesterday bought back a five per cent shareholding in WilliamsF1. The team could be heading in the right direction for the first time in a while..," after which Windsor nuances it.
"Toto's five percent stake in WilliamsF1: Merc point out that it is a Security and thus technically not a "buy-back". A Security is "a first-priority Interest in favour of the Security Agent in respect of all of the shares in such Owner". Make of that what you will." Whether it will come to a larger investment is still to be seen, but with this move Wolff now has lines with three teams in Formula 1. After all, he also owns shares of the Mercedes Formula 1 team.