SUPERCARS PURCHASE OFFER STILL ON THE TABLE – AUTO ACTION EXCLUSIVE
By Bruce Williams
Date posted: 27 July 2022
The state of Supercars is rougher off the track than on it at the moment, with vigorous claims and counter-claims amid a takeover attempt by a foreign company and serious questions raised about the category’s financial health.
AUTO ACTION exposes more on the story that the new owners of Supercars don’t want you to know, and the aligned media are too afraid to touch.
In this issue the magazine includes a major investigation into the recent Supercars ownership purchase offer pitched to Racing Australia Consolidated Enterprises (RACE) and the now public break down in the ownership groups plans for the direction of the sport.
AA talks to key players and includes.
- An exclusive interview with Garry and Barry Rogers on the Supercars takeover offer by FanTech and his thoughts on the breakdown in relations between the RACE ownership group and ARG, as well as his letter to Supercar team owners about his position regarding the direction of the sport.
- Exclusive comments from FanTech’s CEO Wim Ponnet, the head of the organisation that is trying to purchase the ownership rights to Supercars for a substantial premium on what RACE paid for control of Supercars only 7 months ago.
- Supercars’ Telco partner, Peter Addition of Boost Mobil, one of the failed bidders for ownership of Supercars, vents his spleen on the situation.
- AUTO ACTION looks at how Trans Am, has become the new frontier on the Supercars battlefield.
Last Wednesday evening AutoAction.com.au broke the story that Supercars owners, Racing Australia Consolidated Enterprises (RACE), which has owned the Supercars series for a little over six months, had apparently rejected what appears to have been a strong buyout bid by a European-based sports investment group, FanTech.
AUTO ACTION made several attempts to speak with RACE Chairman Barclay Nettlefold including text exchanges but did not get the opportunity to speak to him.
However we received an issued statement by RACE Chairman, Barclay Nettlefold that acknowledged that some purchase approaches had been made ‘(Race) has received a number of unsolicited approaches. Whilst the Board owes a duty to its shareholders to consider any approaches, none have progressed.
The story published by AUTO ACTION and another in The Australian newspaper last Wednesday evening also highlighted that RACE was in the market for new capital investment believed at $10-$12M.
However, in the issue of AUTO ACTION on sale tomorrow or right now in our digital magazine version (here), we will confirm to the industry, that despite an NDA (Non-disclosure agreement) being in place, FanTech’s offer of a healthy premium to the current shareholders’ original investment is still on the table.
While news of a potential buyout of RACE had come from industry insiders as far away as Belgium, the offer’s existence was initially confirmed to AUTO ACTION by RACE shareholders and ARG co-owners Garry and Barry Rogers.
In an exclusive interview with AUTO ACTION, Garry and Barry Rogers confirmed that they had met face-to-face with the potential buyers (FanTech) at their Dandenong, GRM headquarters.
Fantech’s CEO Wim Ponnet spoke to AUTO ACTION’s Publisher and editorial director Bruce Williams from his base in Amsterdam on Monday evening as the printed version of the magazine was about to be printed.
He responded to AUTO ACTION’s special investigation into his organisation’s potential purchase of Supercars.
Ponnet didn’t want to talk too much about the deal, which he believes is not off the table yet, part of what he said is here.
“It’s a pretty frustrating situation for us because we’ve been working on this deal for a while,” he said from Amsterdam, “but we are under a strict NDA (non-disclosure agreement) with them (RACE), and we need to respect that NDA.
“This is not our first deal, and this is not the last deal we’ll be doing, and when you conduct business, you need to do it honestly.”
He said that he felt the deal was not done yet but could not add any further.
While the spectre of a new potential purchase offer is a big story in itself, the subsequent discussion has highlighted a significant divide that is so bad that it has resulted in a potential departure threat by several of the biggest shareholders of the current Supercars ownership group.
Read the full story in the printed edition of Auto Action tomorrow or right now by purchasing the digital version here.
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