Bids Being Excepted to Purchase Nürburgring

The Nürburgring's liquidators began accepting bids to buy the track on Wednesday, May 15, just a few days before an estimated 200,000 fans would descend on the track for the Nürburgring 24 Hours. The liquidators have structured the sale so that bidders can attempt to purchase portions of the track, like the hotels or restaurants, or the entire track. 

The first step in the sale will be for all interested buyers to register with corporate finance company KPMG, which will be running the sale. The bidders have until June 12 to register. The bidders must say which portion of the track (or the whole thing) they are interested in at when they register. The second step will be for KPMG to research the bidders to make sure that they have the money to bid on what they want. It is expected that this will be complete by the fall. Finally, KPMG will accept the actual bids, and the sale in expected to be done in the first quarter of 2014. 

The liquidators said before it began accepting bidding applications that it had 30 interested parties in some portion of the track. Now, KPMG will advertise the sale in international business journals and newspapers, which could increase the number of interested parties significantly. KPMG says that all bidders will have to sign a non-disclosure agreement, which means we never know exactly how many bidders there were for the Nürburgring.

The liquidators are responsible for creating the schedule for the 2013 and 2014 racing seasons. This season has already been finalized, but it means that we will not know about what effect the sale will have until the 2015 season. 

KPMG and the liquidators predict that the track will sell for between €120 and €130 million.

When the sale is over, it will be the first time in 85 years that the track is privately owned. 

According to the liquidators, the track employs 300 people and has an annual turnover of about €60 million.

Source: Rhein Zeitung