Not all of the drama at The Nürburgring gets reported in English language news. Green Hell Guides tries to keep you abreast of all the developments here on our blog. This is a follow up to our recent posts Who Owns The Nürburgring and EU Rules on Legality of State Aid.
They’re both worth reading, but here’s the executive summary:
- German automotive parts company, Capricorn, led the group that won the auction with capital to be provided by Deutsche Bank.
- Although the state aid given to the, now bankrupt, prior owners of The Ring was illegal, the auction was held in a fair and open way, so Capricorn isn’t on the hook to repay that state aid.
- The rumor at the time of the EU ruling was that Deutsche Bank was backing away from the deal with Capricorn who had already missed one payment to the bankruptcy administrators.
On Monday, the bankruptcy administrators made public that, as rumored, Capricorn principal Robertino Wild was having difficulty raising the funds even after putting his private art collection up as collateral. His 2/3 share of the purchase has now been sold to a trustee and it will be up to the trustee and the 1/3 share owner, GetSpeed to meet the financial obligations of the purchase by October 31. If they fail to do so, the administrators will be forced to hold a second auction. This article on the topic translates on Google better than most.
The frightening part is that there isn’t much time to find a new owner before the administrators would perhaps have to shutter the track as there is currently a February 1 deadline imposed by the EU.