The story of the sale of the Nurburgring has been one of twists and turns. In the middle of January it seemed that a deal had been done with the engineering/real estate group Capricorn, but that became bogged down with a complaint to the European Commission over details of the sale and now it seems that the investment firm HIG Capital is going to walk away with the prize, as head of a consortium. It is not clear who is in this consortium but there have been suggestions that the bid involves Meyrick Cox, a former Goldman Sachs banker who went on to become head of automotive dealings at Rothschild and was heavily involved in the sale of Volvo to China’s Geely. He now advises Waddell & Reed, which owns a shareholding in the Formula One group, which may lead to the suggestion that this is a bigger deal than it might seem, and will ensure that the Nürburgring remains part of the F1 world…
The purchase of various assets has already been signalled in paperwork filed with the German competition authority Bundeskartellamt, although the administrator of the Nürburgring company says that no decision has yet been made. One must assume that the circuit itself may be sold off as a separate entity to all the other infrastructure, although it is possible that one buyer would acquire all of it. It is believed that the purchase price could be as low as $85 million, a sign that the administrators wanted to get the sale done as quickly as possible before any further legal problems emerge. The European Commission has been looking at the way in which the local government supported the Nürburgring company before it ran into trouble and thus it is best to get rid of the assets before such decisions are made which may mean that the track is no longer saleable. If the government now has to pay fines for uncompetitive behaviour that will happen but a sale means that the new owners of the Ring cannot easily be tangled up in problems from the past. And the government will have the cash.
joeblogsf1 
Meyrick Cox sold Volvo to china? What a %**@£$. Hope lots of pigeons crap on his limo this fine morning.
Let see, the EU prohibits state funding for anything, thereby driving F1 to distant non EU places that can and do state fund. How wonderful for all lucky EU citizens.
He was involved.
Nobody else wanted Volvo, Ford was near bankrupt, so it was sold.
That didn’t include the truck or earthmoving machinery divisions, only the cars.
I have also heard that Geely intends to build Volvos in China for their domestic market, and keep the doors to their Swedish plant open for the Western market. How long this arrangement continues remains to be seen once they realize how much cheaper they can build literally the same car for much less in China. Now’s the time to buy one if you were ever considering a Volvo.
“The story of the sale of the Nurburgring has been one of twists and turns.”
I see what you did there. 🙂
A bigger deal? Perhaps Mr E has a shareholding? Wouldn’t that be interesting!
Joe,
a little bit more info on the EU story:
The EU did not stop the capricorn deal. In fact, the EU has not made any decision yet. Their decision will not have an impact on the fact whether the Ring will be saleable or not.
Currently, H.I.G/Cox/Graf von Oeynhausen and Capricorn are the two bidders in the race, with HIG being closer to a deal.
No matter what contract will be signed, and by whom, however, it will not close before the EU commission makes their decision about the case.
So in case of a signing, there are two ways forward:
1. The EU commission gives in to the complaints that the sales process and/or result was not compliant with EU law
In this case the contract will not close, and the whole sales process will have to start all over.
2. The EU commission accepts the proceedings and closes their investigation.
If that happens, a lawsuit will be filed against this decision which will get this up to the level of the European Court. A decision could be expected approx. 2 years later.
So there is little chance that any of the current buyers will take over quickly.
So the EU will screw the whole thing? Why is anyone even talking of buying or selling? Seems pointless according to your comment. There must be other scenarios.
The potential buyers and the administrators believe that the complaints are not substantiated. Nevertheless they say that closing will not happen before the EU will have decided. And that decision may take one of the two ways: a “no” will reset the process, a “yes” will trigger a lawsuit filed by those who believe that the complaints are substantiated.
There is also the scenario that there might be no contract at all, because the bids are not far enough in range from that of the ADAC, who submitted a bid for tracks and the core buildings only.
An alternative solution is still on the table, which is a foundation concept. Some expect that this might be the way to go once the current process will have come to a standstill.