Bahraini fund buys McLaren
Bahrain’s sovereign wealth fund has taken full ownership of the McLaren Group, which manufactures high-end sports cars and held a majority stake in its Formula One team.
The Bahraini fund, Mumtalakat, was already McLaren’s biggest shareholder and the deal follows financial uncertainty for the British company, which has been making heavy losses.
McLaren is now understood to be looking at technical partnerships with other businesses to help it develop electric vehicle (EV) technology.
“We are delighted at Mumtalakat’s continued commitment to McLaren through this deal,” says Paul Walsh, executive chairman of the McLaren Group.
“This will further enable us to focus on delivering our long-term business plan, including investment in new products and technologies, while continuing to explore potential technical partnerships with industry partners.”
Mumtalakat has been an investor in McLaren Group since 2007 when it bought a 30 per cent stake from founding shareholders Ron Dennis and Mansour Ojjeh. Over time it increased that to 60 per cent while injecting hundreds of millions of pounds into the business.
Its decision to take full control, which was initially agreed last year, bolsters McLaren’s short-term finances. Sources in the group believe getting rid of what was seen as an overly complex shareholder structure will make future partnerships easier.
McLaren is known to be looking for new technical link-ups to help it expand its range and, in particular, work on developing EVs. The BBC understands that Polestar, owned by the Chinese group Geely, is among those to have held talks with it.
According to the Financial Times, discussions have also been held with Hyundai, BMW and Californian EV brand Lucid Motors. Any deal could involve Mumtalakat selling a minority stake in McLaren Group to its chosen partner.
Financial strain
The McLaren Group has its headquarters in Woking, England. It owns McLaren Automotive, which over the past 14 years has become a major player in the market for prestige sports vehicles.
The group has a majority stake in McLaren Racing, which owns the McLaren F1 team, and also competes in the US IndyCar series, the electric series Formula E and Extreme E.
The company has been under financial strain since the Covid-19 pandemic, which initially forced it to suspend production and led to the cancellation of racing activities. A restructuring in 2020 included the loss of more than 1,000 jobs.
It was then hit by supply-chain disruption, especially the shortage of computer chips, as economies got back into gear. Then there were problems with its new Artura hybrid sportscar, pictured above, which caused it to suspend production.
In the first nine months of last year – the most recent period for which figures are available – it made a pre-tax loss of £276 million, or about NZ$580m.
