The private equity giant EQT Partners is exploring an offer to buy the promoter of the World Rally Championship (WRC) as an auction valuing the business at close to £500m finally gets off the starting grid.
Sky News has learnt that Stockholm-based EQT is among a number of buyout firms preparing to bid for WRC Promoter, which owns the commercial rights to the WRC and the European Rally Championship.
Both series are sanctioned by the FIA, world motorsport’s governing body.
A sale of the promoter has been on the cards since last summer, when the news agency Reuters reported that bankers from JP Morgan had been hired to oversee an auction.
WRC Promoter is owned by the Austrian drinks behemoth Red Bull and KW25, a German investment company.
After five rounds of the 2025 WRC series, the championship standings are headed by British driver Elfyn Evans.
The next race takes place in northern Sardinia, Italy, later this week.
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EQT has not been among the private equity industry’s most prolific investor in sports-related assets, but in recent months it has intensified its interest in the sector.
It recently took a stake in Baller League, a six-a-side football format which counts Gary Lineker among its backers, and was one of the bidders in auction of the commercial rights to Germany’s Bundesliga in 2023.
A spokesman for EQT declined to comment.
