International law firm Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) has advised motor racing circuit owner MotorSport Vision Limited (MSV) on the unconditional merger clearance of its acquisition of the motor racing circuit business at Donington Park by the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).

The BLP cross-office Antitrust & Competition team was led by partners Dave Anderson and James Marshall, Senior Associate Sarah Ward and Associate Paul Culliford. The BLP team worked closely with Jonathan Palmer and MSV Group Legal Affairs Manager Simon MacDonald throughout the CMA’s merger review.

Commenting Simon MacDonald said “BLP’s competition team did an excellent job securing the full clearance of this very important deal for MSV. Dave, James, Sarah and Paul steered us expertly through this challenging and complex CMA process. They quickly gained an impressive understanding of our business and the circuit industry, and we could not have been in safer hands in clearing this hurdle.“

Dave Anderson added: “MSV is a great organisation and the addition of Donington Park to the MSV business is great news for UK motorsport and its fans. We were delighted to work with Jonathan, Simon and the whole team at MSV to win the CMA’s Phase 1 unconditional clearance.”

BLP’s Antitrust & Competition team worked alongside RBB Economics advisors Patrick Smith and Iestyn Williams during the process. BLP acted for MSV on the initial acquisition of Donington Park in January 2017 led by Real Estate Partner Matthew Peel and Corporate Partner Cath Shirley-Brown.

MSV is owned by former F1 driver Jonathan Palmer and with the addition of Donington, it now operates five major UK racing circuits.