One of the greatest mysteries surrounding the Circuit of Wales is exactly where the funding for the project is due to come from.
The ambitious project to build a circuit in the Blaenau Gwent region of South Wales will need some £325 million to complete it entirely, with around £200 million to come from private investors, the rest to come from public funds.
Though the Circuit of Wales has had plenty of headlines, there has been little word of any private investors putting any actual money into the project. That seems set to change.
Michael Carrick, Chief Executive of the Heads of the Valleys Development Company, the company behind the Circuit of Wales project, told the BBC that they have already raised £120 million in private investment, leaving £80 million still to find for development to go ahead.
The investments so far are conditional on the Circuit of Wales overcoming the planning obstacles which still stand in the way of the track.
One of those obstacles is to be addressed tomorrow, as a public inquiry is due to start into the de-registering of common land which is needed for part of the complex.
The eight-day inquiry will hear objections to public land being handed to the HOVDC on the edge of an area of outstanding natural beauty, and one which is extremely sensitive to environmental damage.
The exact source of the £120 million in private investment is not entirely clear. Carrick told the BBC only that it came from “Asian and American financial institutions,” without further specifying which institutions are involved.
This may be a result of the sensitive nature of such financial deals, but it leaves the project wreathed in the fog of uncertainty.
The Circuit of Wales project has suffered long delays, and the HOVDC has remained vague over funding throughout the process.
Once the planning obstacles have been cleared, perhaps the veil can be lifted on the project’s financiers.
This article was originally published on MotoMatters, and is republished here on Asphalt & Rubber with permission by the author.
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