Formula E has spent £110,000 (€130,700/$142,300) to acquire the intellectual property rights to W Series, the all-female racing championship that collapsed into administration last year.
The opportunistic purchase by the electric single-seater racing series was made during a fire sale of assets by administrators Evelyn Partners. The decision to auction off W Series’ business assets individually amid “considerable interest from third parties” was made after no suitable offers were lodged to buy the company and its assets together.
A report compiled by Evelyn Partners has now disclosed that Formula E has acquired IP comprising trademarks, pending trademark applications, social media accounts and domain names. The purchase price is exclusive of VAT.
It remains to be seen whether Formula E will use the assets to create a feeder series. The rights-holder currently runs its ‘FIA Girls On Track’ initiative to invite girls from 12 to 18 to motor sports activities, workshops and give them behind-the-scenes access.
An auction process was instigated in January to sell physical assets including W Series’ 20-strong fleet of racing cars, demonstration vehicles and eight shipping containers. The racing cars ended up being sold both through the auction and a private treaty, with a buyer spending £789,475 on an unspecified number of the vehicles. A total of £203,550 was spent through the private treaty to purchase the remainder of the fleet.
The owners of the cars will be unable to revive W Series as a racing series and would have to create a new business to put those cars back on track for competition purposes, after Formula E Operations Limited purchased the IP rights in March.
While Formula E concluded its tenth season last weekend, W Series only ran for three seasons before entering administration. Its final season was shortened by its financial struggles, and initially investors were sought and then a full sale of the championship was attempted.
The purchase will appear in Formula E’s next annual accounts, with its most recent documents relating to the financial year ending September 30, 2023 and revealing a loss of €42.4m ($44.9m).
The previous year there had been a €65m deficit in revenue compared to costs, but paddock figures told SportBusiness at last weekend’s London E-Prix that they were feeling confident about the financial future of the championship since this year it has been able to return to key markets such as China for race hosting. The series also secured free-to-air television coverage in the UK for the title-deciding round in London.
W Series did enjoy some commercial success, including a three-year deal with UK pay-television broadcaster Sky that generated its largest rights fee. Before Sky came on board, free-to-air broadcaster Channel 4 was not paying a rights fee but provided advertising inventory.
However, the series racked up significant debts.
The most recent accounts, filed on September 5, 2022, showed that W Series had net liabilities of over £7.5m for the period to December 31, 2021. The W Series Limited net liabilities figure in 2020 was £5.1m. The Telegraph reported in September 2022 that a multi-million pound deal with an unnamed US investor collapsed after contracts were signed. It is understood that talks were also held with prospective investors from Dubai.