Norton Rose, City Law drive BMW’s sale of F1 race team

BMW, represented by Norton Rose, announced several weeks ago that it is pulling out of F1 and has since put its team up for sale.

Corporate finance partner Robin Brooks was lead adviser for BMW, a longstanding client of the firm.

The team has been bought by Qadbak Investments Fund, represented by City Law partner Paul Fallon.

Qadbak is a Switzerland-based body set up by a combination of Middle Eastern and European investors.

City Law is a two-partner firm based in London’s Cloak Lane that specialises in financial litigation and corporate work.

“The deal raised issues in connection with BMW’s decision to pull out of F1, the participation of the restructured team in next year’s Grand Prix and the underlying concord agreement,” explained Fallon.

As a Norton Rose partner Brooks has advised BMW on several occasions, including on the sale of Rover Financial Services to MG Rover in 2001 and the sale of BMW subsidiary Powertrain to Techtronic the same year.

It now looks likely that the BMW Sauber team will be allowed to compete in next year’s championship after receiving a favourable hearing from governing body the FIA.