Friday March 1st, 2002

Cosme Rogeau, the court appointed liquidator of the Prost Grand Prix team, has issued a statement to clarify the deadline set for buyout offers of the French squad following reports that an undisclosed buyer had purchased the Formula One team who were put into liquidation on January 28th.

Rogeau has clarified that the buyout took place before the established deadline imposed by the FIA's regulations and so the team will be able to compete in this year's Championship if they are able to complete their line-up.

Rogeau also confirmed that, as Atlas F1 had reported earlier today, the purchaser of the team's 2001 cars and their intellectual property rights, is British businessman Charles Nickerson through the company Phoenix Finance Ltd.

The statement clarified that the offer taken by Nickerson included the following:

1. the AP04 and AP05 chassis intellectual property

2. the AP05 pieces and elements

3. the rights related to the Concorde Agreement

4. the hiring of some AP04 chassis elements and related parts

Rogeau said that no buyout offer of the Prost Grand Prix production unit (the factory) was delivered before the expiration of the deadline. He also indicated that the working plant elements will be auctioned in the coming weeks, in accordance with the order of the "Juge Commissaire" edicted on February 19th 2002.

The name "Prost Grand Prix" was not included in the assignment. Finally, he also said that he is still looking for a purchaser of the Guyancourt facilities and the Magny-Cours wind tunnel.

Published at 13:24:04 GMT