Acquisition of world’s main motorbike racing championship expands Liberty Media’s portfolio of high-quality international sports activities property.
Liberty Media Company has introduced an settlement to accumulate MotoGP™. MotoGP™ is the top of two wheels, with 22 of the quickest riders competing on purpose-built prototype bikes on a few of the world’s biggest racetracks, reaching prime speeds above 360 kilometers per hour/223 miles per hour. From the primary season in 1949 that staged six rounds throughout Europe, the game has grown to comprise greater than 20 Grands Prix throughout 5 continents, with the tv broadcast reaching a whole lot of tens of millions around the globe.
This new settlement will see Dorna Sports activities S.L., the unique business and tv rights holder of MotoGP™, stay an independently run firm attributed to Liberty Media’s Method One Group monitoring inventory. Carmelo Ezpeleta, who has been CEO since 1994, will stay in his place and proceed to run the enterprise together with his administration crew. The enterprise will stay primarily based in Madrid.
Dorna additionally holds unique rights to different motorbike racing sequence, together with MotoGP™ feeder sequence Moto2™ and Moto3™, the FIM Enel MotoE™ World Championship, the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship and the brand new FIM Girls’s Circuit Racing World Championship.
Liberty Media will purchase roughly 86% of Dorna, with Dorna administration retaining roughly 14% of their fairness within the enterprise. The transaction displays an enterprise worth for Dorna/MotoGP™ of €4.2 billion and an fairness worth of €3.5 billion, with MotoGP’s™ current debt stability anticipated to stay in place after shut.
“We’re thrilled to broaden our portfolio of main stay sports activities and leisure property with the acquisition of MotoGP,” mentioned Greg Maffei, Liberty Media President and CEO. “MotoGP is a worldwide league with a loyal, enthusiastic fan base, charming racing and a extremely money circulate generative monetary profile. Carmelo and his administration crew have constructed an important sporting spectacle that we are able to broaden to a wider international viewers. The enterprise has vital upside, and we intend to develop the game for MotoGP followers, groups, business companions and our shareholders.”
“That is the proper subsequent step within the evolution of MotoGP, and we’re excited for what this milestone brings to Dorna, the MotoGP paddock and racing followers,” mentioned Carmelo Ezpeleta, CEO of Dorna. “We’re pleased with the worldwide sport we’ve grown, and this transaction is a testomony to the worth of the game in the present day and its progress potential. Liberty has an unimaginable monitor document in growing sports activities property and we couldn’t want for a greater associate to broaden MotoGP’s fanbase around the globe.”
The acquisition is anticipated to be accomplished by year-end 2024 and is topic to the receipt of clearances and approvals by competitors and overseas funding regulation authorities in numerous jurisdictions.
