The contest for the V8 Supercars business is understood to have narrowed to one party, which has lobbed its final offer and is waiting to hear from owner Archer Capital if it is the successful buyer.
The Australian Racing Group consortium and the TGI Sport consortium have joined forces to form one proposal after earlier competing with each other for the business, which is up for sale through Miles Advisory.
ARG is owned by Brian Boyd and John McMellan from Payce Property, along with well-known racing identities Garry and Barry Rogers.
The TGI Sport consortium also includes TLA Worldwide, run by Craig Kelly and Mark Skaife.
Funding the offer is TGI’s US-based owner Bruin Sports Capital.
The understanding is that the offer came in around the $60m mark.
Earlier, there was talk that Australian businessman Peter Adderton was partnering with NRL team the Brisbane Broncos to buy Supercars, but the thinking is that they are no longer in the mix.
Miles Advisory is now believe to be in discussions with the teams about the proposals.
One theory is that the bidder may have promised team owners $700,000 per season per racing entitlement contract.
V8 Supercars is among sporting events hard hit by the global pandemic, with its marquee event for the year, the Bathurst 1000, pushed back from October to November and earnings being severely hit.
Miles originally helped sell a majority stake in the V8 Supercars business to Archer in 2011 for a price that valued it at about $300m.
The supercars teams themselves own the remaining minority stake.
The understanding is that V8 has been making about $23m in annual earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, but that was before the recent lockdowns to try to stem the spread of the Covid-19 Delta variant.
Much of the earnings winds up in the hands of the racing teams, according to industry analysts.
The broadcasting rights of V8, which are held by Seven and Fox Sports, are seen as a valuable part of the operation.
- Additional reporting by John Stensholt.
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