Force India Co-Owner Vijay Mallya Dismisses Claims of Selling Share in Team

Force India’s principal owner Vijay Mallya has denied a media report that speculated he is planning to sell his stake in the Formula One team to Sahara India.

The report quoted sources as saying that multi-business conglomerate Sahara India was in talks to take over from Mallya, who co-owns Force India with Dutch businessman Michiel Mol. It further said a “deal is on the verge of being finalised and that an announcement to the effect is expected in a couple of days”.

The sucessful businessman issued a statement in response to the report, “I take great pride in having been able to put an Indian team on the Formula One World Championship grid and have worked very hard to greatly improve the performance of the team. Now that India is finally on the Formula One World Championship calendar, my commitment to Force India only gets even stronger. As Team Principal, I will continue to run the team and I have no plans whatsoever to exit.” 

Force India was formed in October 2007 when a consortium (Orange India Holdings) led by Mallya and Mol picked up the struggling Spyker F1 team for Euro 88 million ($118m).