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The deal is now almost signed, sealed and delivered for Liberty Media, and soon MotoGP will also be its asset. Disclosing the status of the transaction process was the company's CEO Greg Maffei at the U.S. group's investor conference.
It was last August when the U.S. announced the divestment of an $825 million stake in F1 to steer it into MotoGP , and now, according to quarterly results, the sum needed to finalize the transition has reportedly been reached.
"The third quarter was active both at the corporate level and at our operating businesses. We closed the Liberty SiriusXM merger with SiriusXM, refinanced the F1 debt facilities and secured all necessary funding for our planned acquisition of MotoGP" were the executive's words as reported by Motorsport.com.
"We raised an incremental $850 million in term loan B and $150 million in term loan A commitments to fund that MotoGP transaction, we also issued $949 million of FWONK shares, replacing the equity consideration to the sellers in the transaction, so we will directly pay them cash," he then went on to underline the application of a 4 percent stock discount to the market price for long-term holders.
In spite of the good economic news, Liberty may find itself stuck on another front however. Alejandro Agag, patron of Formula E has officially denounced the situation to the European Commission as it could give rise to a monopoly regime.
"We are making progress with the European Commission which is our only remaining regulatory jurisdictional hurdle and we continue to expect a year-end close,” said the 64-year-old convincingly, who, to reassure the board about the quality and value of the investment, also recalled the recent extension to 2060 of the rights agreement between the motorcycle championship and the FIM and the presence in the 2025 calendar of 22 races located in as many as 18 different countries.
