George Gillett’s financial difficulty following the sale of Liverpool FC has thrown the future of Richard Petty Motorsports into doubt and left the NASCAR team’s owners and lenders searching for investors to keep the team afloat. The Gilletts and Pettys, which are two of the NASCAR team’s principal owners, began an aggressive search for investors this month. RPM has hired the Gordian Group, a New York-based investment bank, to assist them in their search, while the syndicate of banks that lent Gillett more than $90 million to buy the team have been working with FTI Consulting, a global consultancy specializing in corporate finance, to find investors, sources said. A spokeswoman for RPM declined to comment. The search for funding for RPM follows a challenging financial year for Gillett. The team reportedly defaulted on its roughly $90 million loan last February, and Gillett, who owns as much as 70% of the team, has been unable to restructure it. Gillett was counting on the sale of his stake in Liverpool FC to assist him in funding the NASCAR team. But Liverpool sold two weeks ago for $475 million, a sum far less than Gillett and co-owner Tom Hicks expected and one that has put a heavy strain on Gillett’s liquidity.
The team was renamed Richard Petty Motorsports in 2009 after Gillett formed a partnership with Petty that gave the NASCAR great a roughly 4% stake in the team. The partnership followed the closure of Petty Enterprises. RPM plans to run two cars next season after running four this year. Only one of the 2011 cars, the #9 Stanley Tools Ford to be driven by Marcos Ambrose, is sponsored. The team remains in negotiations with Best Buy about extending its sponsorship of the #43 car driven by AJ Allmendinger.(full article at the Sporting News/SportsBusiness Journal)(10-26-2010)
