Germany: Sale of Nuerburgring in Question

As announced by the Nürburgring GmbH and its liquidator yesterday, the sale of Germany’s Nuerburgring to the automotive component supplier Capricorn is run EU-compliant. Thus, the buyer is not liable to pay back the incompatible state aid (cf. EAP news from 12 March 2014). “We see confirmed that Brussels has given our sales process ‘green light’”, explains Managing Director in charge of the restructuring process, Prof. Dr. Dr. Thomas B. Schmidt. The decision of the European Commission means that after months of uncertainty the situation could now calm down again and legal certainty could be created for the new operator now, says Schmidt. However, the payment defaults or deferrals of the buyer Capricorn and its possibly questionable collaterals that were publicly debated in the German media in recent days were not mentioned at all. According to WirtschaftsWoche, the liquidator had already talked to former participants of the tendering procedure behind closed doors on a possible sales contract takeover prior to the EU Commissions’ decision. (eap)