The American company Liberty Media, which controls Formula 1, closed an agreement with Bridgepoint to take over Dorna Sportsthe manager of the MotoGP and World Superbikes World Cup (WSBK), among others, in exchange for US$4,530 million.
The change of hands of Dorna Sports leads Liberty Media to control the two main motor competitions: on the one hand, the Formula 1 and on the other, MotoGP, in addition to WSBK, MotoE and the Women’s Motorcycle World Championship, among others.
The operation was closed after several months of negotiations between the parties. In February, Liberty Media showed interest in Dorna, although the deal did not materialize. A month later, the owner of Formula 1 presented a firm offer to take over Dorna with the aim of acquiring the company before the end of the first quarter.
Bridgepoint had offers from other venture capital companies such as CVC, KKR or EQT. In fact, Enrique Aldama, financial director of Dorna Sports, had pointed out that “our shareholder Bridgepoint Capital and the Canadian pension fund have the objective of improving the companies and, at a given moment, selling them” and had admitted that “there is interest from many companies and one of them is Liberty Media.”
Other interested parties
Companies specialized in half They were also interested in acquiring Bridgepoint: Amazon, Netflix or Disney, which have been in the sports sector for years, knocked on the door of the company that owns MotoGP to explore acquisition avenues.
Liberty Media has been advised by Goldman Sachs in this transaction, while the selling party (Bridgepoint, Cppib and the directors of Dorna) has had the support of Moelis&Company, from the financial point of view, and Uría Menéndez and Latham&Watkins, in the legal area .
For its part, Dorna Sports closed the 2023 season with record revenues of US$496 million, 15% more than the previous year, reaching an unprecedented figure. By championships, MotoGP was the main economic engine, generating around US$464 million of the total, which is equivalent to almost 95%, while the WSBK reported US$32 million in income in 2023.
The Indian Grand Prix entrywhich increased the number of races on the 2023 calendar to twenty, and the improvement in income attributed to the commercial area were the main reasons for the increase in Dorna’s business volume, as well as the celebration of the sprint racesomething inspired by Formula 1.
On the contrary, Formula 1 concluded its 2023 fiscal year with losses of US$198 million, despite increasing its income by 25%. The competition ended last season reversing the black numbers of the previous year, which rose to US$562 million. Despite the losses in 2023, operating profit stood at US$297 million, 71% more than in 2022.
Source: Ambito
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