Formulation 1 proprietor Liberty Media Corp. is shopping for the bike racing league MotoGP World Championship from Bridgepoint and Canada Pension Plan Funding Board as a part of a $3.8 billion (€3.5 billion) deal.
Liberty Media is taking up Madrid-based MotoGP by shopping for its unique rights holder Dorna Sports activities with a mix of money and shares of Sequence C Liberty Formulation One widespread inventory. The deal will convey one of many world’s greatest motor-racing manufacturers and MotoGP — typically described because the two-wheeled equal of Formulation 1 — below a single roof.
MotoGP is simply the newest asset to be taken over by billionaire John Malone’s sprawling Liberty Media empire that already consists of a variety of media, communications and leisure companies similar to live performance promoter Stay Nation Leisure Inc. Since shopping for F1 in 2016, Liberty Media has focused key markets together with the U.S., tried to develop the game’s reputation via digital streaming and struck gold with the present Drive to Survive.
The deal might draw scrutiny from antitrust regulators. The buyout agency CVC Capital Companions Ltd. was compelled to place MotoGP up on the market almost 20 years in the past to achieve antitrust approval from European regulators for its takeover of Formulation 1 in 2005. MotoGP is planning to host 21 races throughout 17 international locations on this yr’s season, in line with the corporate assertion.
Liberty stated it’s funding the take care of a mixture of money and debt and expects the transaction to shut by the top of 2024. Dorna Sports activities Chief Govt Officer Carmelo Ezpeleta will proceed to run the enterprise.
Liberty Media has plans to increase MotoGP’s occasions to a “wider world viewers,” CEO Greg Maffei stated within the firm’s assertion Monday. “The enterprise has vital upside, and we intend to develop the game for MotoGP followers, groups, business companions and our shareholders,” he stated.
Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC acted as monetary adviser to Liberty Media and is offering dedicated debt financing. O’Melveny & Myers LLP is performing as authorized counsel. Moelis & Firm LLC is monetary adviser to Dorna, and Latham & Watkins LLP is authorized counsel.
