BarcelonaLast year, the Government injected 29.3 million euros into the Circuit de Catalunya to balance its accounts, according to the report submitted to the Mercantile Registry. This is 10 million more than what was known until now. Contributing this amount, however, did not prevent the Circuit from closing the 2021 financial year with losses of 2.18 million euros, a figure almost identical to the 2.19 million red numbers of the previous year. And this despite the fact that revenues increased by almost 28% and went from 6.1 million to 7.8 million in 2021. Two years, however, marked by the pandemic and protocols against covid-19, especially in 2020, with top-level sporting events without an audience or with significant restrictions.
In fact, the level of occupancy of the Circuit last year was 83% as a whole, despite the fact that at the end of the year, already without restrictions, it increased to 90%.
According to the accounts presented by the Circuit, the accumulated losses in previous years increased to 34.6 million in 2021. The audit report highlights that at the end of 2021 the route management company had a fund of negative maneuver of 14.9 million (2.7 million if the debts with the Generalitat are not considered). In this situation, the auditor indicates, there are doubts that the activity can continue without the support of its partners. The Circuit is 78.3% owned by the Generalitat (directly or through the public company Avançsa), 14.4% by the RACC and 7.2% by the Montmeló City Council. These last two partners have not made contributions to cover the losses for years and only the Generalitat bears the cost.
Strategic plan
To reverse the Circuit’s financial situation, the Company’s advisor, Roger Torrent, presented a few days ago the Circuit’s strategic plan, which envisages an additional investment of 30 million euros “in two or three years” to adapt the installation ·ation in the 21st century and find new ways of income that allow to reduce the contribution of public money. However, Torrent takes it for granted that public support will never disappear. “There is no circuit in the world that has the reference races that we have that is economically sustainable without public contributions – Torrent said in a recent interview with ARA -. What we want is to increase the source of direct income so that the public contribution is lower and lower”.
