A group of investors building a MotoGP motorcycle racetrack near Lake Balaton has said a HUF 15.3bn loan from the state-owned Hungarian Development Bank is being granted project company Savoly Motorcentrum Fejleszto under market conditions, and a HUF 20bn state subsidy for the project is really a concession fee.
The project company must first complete HUF 5.34bn of work at the racetrack before calling down the loan as a condition in the contract, the statement said. A contract on the loan has not yet been signed, it added.
A HUF 20bn “subsidy” the state is awarding the project is really a concession fee paid to Dorna, which owns the MotoGP brand, the statement said. The fee is to be paid over ten years.
“This is established European practice in the organisation of similar races, such events are everywhere used to organise advertising campaigns to increase the number of foreign tourists”, the statement said.
The statement was published a few days after internet news source index.hu said an internal Finance Ministry document showed the ministry’s experts did not see any assurance a state loan for the project would be repaid.
Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai asked the economy minister on Friday afternoon to take immediate measures to see that an impact study of the racetrack is made public as soon as possible.
A consortium led by Spain’s Sedesa and Grupo Milton laid the cornerstone of Balatonring in November 2008 and was to have completed the track in time for a race in the autumn of 2009.