Rhineland-Palatinate/Germany: Nuerburgring Race Track Sold to Automotive Supplier

Now it’s official! Following intensive negotiations, all assets of the historic Nuerburgring have now been sold as was revealed during a press conference held in Koblenz yesterday. The race track was sold to Capricorn Group, an automotive supplier based in Düsseldorf. The buyer, the newly founded capricorn NÜRBURGRING GmbH, which belongs to Capricorn Group, narrowly won the bidding process against its contender, the international private investment firm HIG Capital. According to Prof. Dr. Thomas B. Schmidt, the managing director in charge of the restructuring process, and the insolvency monitor, Jens Lieser, the purchase price is 77 million Euros. The new owner, who has its roots in motor sport providing products and services for the automotive and aviation sectors across Europe, wants to invest 25 million Euros in the expansion and development of the Nuerburgring and its periphery as well as create a new automotive technology cluster. While the Eifeldorf “Grüne Hölle” and the ring°werk indoor theme world will be replaced by the automotive technology cluster, the ring°racer rollercoaster is to be removed and re-erected elsewhere in Rhineland-Palatinate. According to capricorn NÜRBURGRING GmbH managing director Robertino Wild, the “Grüne Hölle” is a chronic loss-generating business. The buyer will take over the assets of Nürburgring GmbH on 1 January 2015. Nevertheless, the company has a right of withdrawal in the event that the European Commission takes legal action against it for possible recovery of state aid.

The Nürburgring GmbH had filed for bankruptcy in 2012, May of last year saw the beginning of the sales proceedings for Nürburgring’s assets (cp. EAP, issue 1/2014, catchword: ring°racer). Besides the race track, the site also includes the ring°werk indoor theme world and hotels. (eap)