International Speedway Corporation and NASCAR Holdings, Inc. have agreed to a merger that will be finalised by the end of 2019, the former confirmed in a statement released Wednesday.
“[ISC] announced today that it has entered into an Agreement and Plan of Merger (“Merger Agreement”) with NASCAR Holdings, Inc. (“NASCAR”) pursuant to which NASCAR will acquire ISC,” the release read. “The transaction is valued at approximately $2.0 billion. The consideration to be paid to ISC’s shareholders (other than certain controlling shareholders of ISC and certain related entities (the “Participating Shareholders”)) will be $45.00 in cash for each share of ISC Class A Common Stock and ISC Class B Common Stock.
“The Merger Agreement was unanimously recommended and approved by a special committee comprised solely of independent directors of the Board of Directors of ISC (the “Board”) and was unanimously approved by the full Board. In addition, the Participating Shareholders have signed a letter agreement to cause their respective shares of ISC Class A Common Stock and ISC Class B Common Stock to be transferred to NASCAR prior to the effective time of the merger.”
Owned and founded by the France family that runs NASCAR, ISC is one of two companies that operate tracks hosting NASCAR races along with Bruton Smith‘s Speedway Motorsports, Inc. The venues run by ISC that are on the Monster Energy Cup Series schedule are Daytona International Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway, Auto Club Speedway, Chicagoland Speedway, Darlington Raceway, Homestead-Miami Speedway, ISM Raceway, Kansas Speedway, Martinsville Speedway, Michigan International Speedway, Richmond Raceway, and Watkins Glen International.
With the merger, NASCAR will take over the twelve tracks, while NASCAR’s own Iowa Speedway, which hosts Xfinity and Gander Outdoors Truck Series races, will join the group. As NASCAR-owned venues, flexibility in scheduling will be easier to attain, especially as track contracts are set to expire by 2021.
On a related note, SMI received offers from Sonic Financial Corporation to buy the company in April.
