Formula one team Force India, co-owned by Vijay Mallya, has been asked to pay AMP Advisory and Management Partners a brokerage fee of £150k (Rs 130 lakh) for facilitating the ‘Pink Panther’ sponsorship deal with Austrian water technology company BWT, the Times of India reported on Tuesday.
The order, issued by a commercial court of the London High Court, ruled that AMP did contribute to the multi-million deal that would have been worth €74 million (Rs 575 crore) had it gone through full term and under which the cars were painted pink. The contract was signed in March 2017 but the team went into administration in 2018.
The team’s assets and business were sold to Racing Point in 2018 and BWT is still the sponsor of the new entity.
While AMP insisted that they played a significant role in the deal coming through, Force India team principal Mallya, who still owns 42.5% stake in Force India, insisted during the trial that Mercedes-AMG F1 team principal Toto Wolff had introduced them to BWT and not the brokerage firm.
AMP, on the other hand, claimed that Force India had agreed to pay them a commission of 15% of the sponsorship fee up to €12.5 million and 12% thereafter.
