Spyker shareholders approve sale of F1 team

AMSTERDAM, Sep 30 (Reuters) Dutch sports car maker Spyker Cars NV said its shareholders had approved the sale of its loss-making Formula One team as part of its refinancing operations.

But it did not say whether the sale would go ahead.

Earlier this month Spyker announced it would sell its team to a group which includes Indian businessman Vijay Mallya for 123 million dollars.

''The exclusive negotiation period with the consortium ends at midnight on Sept. 30 and minor legal conditions linked to this offer remain to be settled,'' Spyker said in a statement yesterday.

It added that the Formula One team would make a loss of about 6 million euros in the third quarter and its car business would not be profitable in the second half.

Once the sale of the Formula One team had been completed, the company would return to its strategic review and associated refinancing.

Spyker bought the Formula One team from Midland for 106.6 million dollars last year. The team made a 13 million euro loss in the first half of the year, lifting Spyker's overall loss to 29.9 million euros from 1.1 million in the year-ago period.

Spyker makes two-seaters selling from around 250,000 euros.

The team have yet to score a point this season and have German rookie Adrian Sutil and Japan's Sakon Yamamoto as their drivers.

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